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Oct. 15
Baylor Pays for SAT Gains
Baylor University is being called “the poster child for SAT misuse” after the student newspaper revealed an unusual practice: paying admitted freshmen to retake the SAT and offering large financial rewards for those whose scores go up by certain levels.
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While the university says that its approach is designed to give out more scholarship aid, it is being denounced as a cynical attempt to boost SAT averages (which dropped for the class in which this approach is being used) to try to improve the university’s standing with U.S. News & World Report.
Here’s what happened at Baylor this year:
When the class that enrolled this fall was admitted, admissions officials noticed two things. John Barry, vice president for marketing and communications, said that that the primary thing they noticed was that numerous merit scholarships — many of which are given out based on formulas based on SAT and class rank — were not given out because students didn’t qualify. The other thing they noticed (Barry said this was a minor issue, but others disagreed) was that the SAT average was 1200, down 19 points from the previous year. Baylor, which is in the middle of a campaign to become a top national university, has been hoping for SAT movement in the opposite direction.
What to do? Barry said that the financial aid office thought that if accepted students retook the SAT, many would receive higher scores. But for most high school seniors, having survived the college admissions process and decided where to go, taking the SAT again isn’t exactly an alluring prospect. So Baylor decided to “incentivize” the students, Barry said.
Baylor offered any admitted student a $300 book credit at the campus store just for taking the SAT again. Then if students’ scores went up by 50 points, which Barry characterized as going up “dramatically,” they would earn a scholarship of $1,000. Further, for students who had missed the cutoff levels for various merit scholarships, if their new SAT score got them over the bar, they could have that money.
Of the admitted students who decided to enroll, 861 (about 28 percent of the class) took the SAT again and earned the $300. Of those, 150 increased scores by at least 50 points, earning $1,000 each. And 177 (including many of the 150) passed over cutoff levels and thus qualified for scholarships worth a total of $450,000. (Many of those scholarships are paid over four years, not one.) Not surprisingly, Baylor’s SAT average went up by 10 points.
“Obviously the pessimistic view of this whole thing is we are paying kids to up their SAT scores and up our score in U.S. News,” Barry said.
But the university takes another view, he added — that this is about helping students and upholding standards. If the university lowered the SAT requirements for scholarships, that would be eroding quality, he said, but encouraging students to retake the SAT didn’t do that. Asked about the wide consensus among educators — even those who favor the SAT — that the use of cutoff scores is generally unsound, Barry said that the SAT was “a national standard” and that many colleges have similar approaches.
Barry admitted that U.S. News was a factor, but he said it “was not the driver.” He explained that “all of us want bright classes of students, and we want to communicate that we recruit bright classes of students,” he said, so rankings do matter. “To say we don’t pay attention to that would be false.”
As word of Baylor’s program has circulated in admissions circles, many have been dubious that SAT averages to be reported to U.S. News aren’t the driver. After all, the rewards Baylor is characterizing as significant SAT gains aren’t significant at all. For instance, the College Board reports that all students who take the SAT as juniors and then retake it a year later are likely to see a 45-point gain, so 50 points is pretty unexceptional.
David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said Baylor’s approach “appears to be a compound misuse of undergraduate admission tests” of the sort that a special task force of his association recently warned about. Hawkins noted that the commission’s report stated that panel members believe “that the continued use of admission test scores as college ranking criteria creates undue pressure on admission offices to pursue increasingly high test scores.”
Hawkins said that “further complicating the misuse of test scores is the allocation of scarce financial resources for the purpose of raising the test score profile at an institution.” He added that he hopes that U.S. News “understands the importance of resolving its misuse of admission test scores, and will reconsider its previously stated position of making no change to its ranking formulas.”
Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, said that Baylor has now become “the poster child for SAT misuse” because it is not credible that the university has motives at play other than rankings.
If Baylor believes SAT scores are meaningful enough to decide whether to admit students, he said, it should have confidence in those scores and not be “bribing students” to raise their scores. “If they wanted to give out test-based scholarships, they have the SAT scores already,” he said. (Schaeffer added that giving out scholarships this way violates NACAC standards, among other things. NACAC’s “Statement of Principles of Good Practice” says that colleges shouldn’t “use minimum test scores as the sole criterion for admission, advising or for the awarding of financial aid.” While the Baylor funds are theoretically given out on a class rank/SAT, the additional $450,000 is now being distributed solely on the basis of changes in SAT scores.)
The Lariat, Baylor’s student newspaper, which reported about the policy last week, ran an editorial Tuesday denouncing it. The student paper said that this year’s freshmen were getting a shot at extra scholarship money just because their SAT averages were low — while upperclass students never had that shot. If Baylor doesn’t want students with low SAT scores, the student paper said, it shouldn’t admit them.
To the Lariat, the only explanation that makes sense is that the university is worried about rankings. “Since students don’t really have any use for SAT scores once they are accepted into college, it seems Baylor’s motives for the retesting opportunity were purely selfish,” the editorial says.
Of course U.S. News might have the last laugh. Robert Morse, who directs the magazine’s college rankings, said that because of the way the magazine counts SAT averages (using percentiles, not raw score averages), the gains at Baylor may not be material to its ranking. Morse also said that he hadn’t ever heard of a college using this strategy. Further, he said that he questions whether an SAT score given only for Baylor to use in this way is a legitimate SAT score. He said that he is not convinced that these scores should count “as a real SAT test and therefore this seems like a scam from that perspective.”
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Comments
tacky behavior
Baylor’s offer demeans itself, the SATs, and financial aid in general. Student game players will figure the profit they can make in added ‘merit’ aid money after paying for test coaching
College Board has just completed a wide ranging report ,with proposals, on financial aid — focusing mainly though not wholly on federal aid. I wish it would now comission a second report, attending to its own backyard of member colleges and their responsibilities.
Rupert WilkinsonAuthor of AIDING STUDENTS, BUYING STUDENTS: Financial Aid in America (Vanderbilt UP).
Rupert Wilkinson, Prof, at 7:40 am EDT on October 15, 2008
SAT manipulations
There are two stories here, Baylor’s self-serving manipulation of its SAT scores and the self-defeating manipulability of SAT scores themselves.
Will higher education ever have the guts just to scrap the whole SAT farce?
Rich Haswell, Haas Professor Emeritus, at 8:10 am EDT on October 15, 2008
A Non-Story
This is such a non-story. Every college I’ve worked at has done this and I bet most schools that offer academic scholarships do. Almost every college says they will take the student’s best SAT or ACT results in determining admission and merit aid, if they factor test scores into those decisions. As an admission director at a rolling admission institution (which is what most colleges are), you don’t want kids holding off on applying for admission until they’ve taken the SAT “one more time” to try to ensure they’ve given you their best shot. You want them to apply ASAP, so you tell them that you’ll reconsider them for larger scholarships if they decide to retest and they do better. This is in the best interests of both the college and the student.
The only thing that’s different in this case is [a] Baylor is rewarding them for even *trying* the test again, even if scores don’t improve, which seems a little strange and unnecessary and [b] Baylor is actually acknowledging that concerns about SAT averages for their freshman class are a driver in this new initiative.
I’m not a huge fan of the SAT, but to single Baylor out on this is missing the big picture.
20+ Years in Admissions, at 8:25 am EDT on October 15, 2008
what’s going on at Baylor?
This story reminded me that it seems as though there are more weird events at Baylor than just about any other university I can think of. What kind of leadership are they getting from, say, their board of regents? I have no connection to Baylor but am curious: Are others closer to the university (alumni, faculty, staff) embarrassed about this recent record? What’s going on?
A quick search of Inside Higher Ed finds the following (and more): * Baylor Pays for SAT Gains. Oct 15, 2008 * Baylor Fires its President. July 25, 2008 * Anger at Baylor. May 12, 2008 * Changing the Tenure Rules without Telling Anyone. April 1, 2008 * False Rank — Did Baylor law school give U.S. News & World Report bad data to improve its ranking? June 28, 2006 * Prom Party Crashes Law Study — Dean of Baylor Law School apologizes. April 26, 2006 Baylor Dismisses Gay Alumnus from Advisory Board. Nov 10, 2005 * First Ammendment Lessons ("Baylor University barred the campus Starbucks from using coffee cups with a quote that the university feared was pro-gay"). Sept 19, 2005.* Partial ‘Death Penalty” for Baylor Basketball — NCAA restricts number of games team can play, citing slew of violations and cover-up. June 25, 2008
mjd1pa, at 9:10 am EDT on October 15, 2008
Can’t give Baylor a pass, but let’s hope the light of day...
I first heard of this yesterday and it made my stomach hurt, but I was hoping that the Baylor student paper got something wrong. Acts like this are higher ed’s version of sub-prime and ARM mortgages and the housing bubble. Short-sighted means to temporarily boost one’s position are almost always unsustainable, somehow compromise access, and/or fail to reward genuine hard work and intelligence.
Manipulating testing results are not the only way to do skew the data feed into US News, etc. Alumni giving rates and number of classes of less than X seats are also easily skewed. So don’t blame ACT and College Board for this problem. It lies squarely on the admissions directors and the administration above them.
Of course, it does shed more harsh light on the misuse of these tests. First, a cutoff that really didn’t need to be a cutoff (if Baylor sets it, then Baylor can reset it), and then benefiting from the increased scores of students who didn’t need to sit for another exam. How timely after NACAC’s recent report which *clearly* takes both issues to task.
Now is a great time for NACAC, College Board, ACT, and (yes) US News to step up and say “1. This is a misuse of these tests, 2. We will plug this ‘hole’, 3. More attention will be paid to institutions who seek to game the system and act in ways that undermine the trust between higher ed and the people we seek to serve.”
(I only have 17 years in admissions, must be I’ll learn something different in the next three.)
Rob Springall, at 9:20 am EDT on October 15, 2008
Hey, here’s an idea, Baylor. . . .
How about you give all that extra scholarship money that went “unearned” to poor students, so they don’t have to borrow as much money to attend your university. Would that perhaps be more in line with your Christian mission than paying students to take the SAT again?
Don, Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State University, at 9:30 am EDT on October 15, 2008
To 20+ Years
But do other schools use the best admissions score achieved after admission?
I think Baylor is the only school that would sink to paying college freshmen to take the SAT again.
I expect their peer score to plummet.
reader, at 9:35 am EDT on October 15, 2008
ALL colleges and universities give scholarships based on academic merit and thus “buy” test scores. Why is it such a big deal when Baylor does it? Their efforts to become a great Christian research university should be commended, not criticized.
Old Baylor Bear, at 9:55 am EDT on October 15, 2008
SAT abuse
Reminds me of many years ago when I became admissions director of a small college. I found that my predecessor as a matter of routine added points to the SAT scores of students who did not take the SAT their senior year for the purpose of calculating average scores. This added quite a bit to the SAT scores he reported on the college’s profile. I ended this immediately and used only actual scores in our reporting.
Old timer, at 9:55 am EDT on October 15, 2008
Gaming the system
This tactic seems unfair in many ways. It is exclusionary and reeks with attempts at elitism. University officials might want to review the research done by Monks and Ehernberg and by Meredith or better than that consider hiring a marketing professional familiar with ethical practices and one who has a clearer understanding of the mission of higher education.
F Capobianco, at 10:30 am EDT on October 15, 2008
Baylor Pays for SAT Scores
Wow, lets all go back and take those SATs again, I took them 40 years ago and have learned so much since then. Talk about “Teaching to the Test"... Baylor must be in the same state as the guy who brought us “No Child Left Behind".
Tom McCue, at 10:30 am EDT on October 15, 2008
re: “But do other schools use the best admissions score achieved after admission?”
Yes, after admission. . . but not after *enrollment*. Perhaps I missed something here. . . my assumption was that the story described students who had been accepted for admission but not yet enrolled. If Baylor was encouraging already matriculated students to retake the SAT, then I agree with others here who see this as malpractice. . . and kind of pathetic.
20+ Years in Admissions, at 11:00 am EDT on October 15, 2008
The End Of The Universe
Lewis Black, who has seen the end of the universe, thought it was in Houston, Texas. But this report proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s in Waco.
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=41926
To quote Mr. Black, “Nobody could be that stupid. And if there was a just and loving God, He would not allow this sort of thing to happen.”
I am the inveterate optimist, for years unsuccessfully trying to convince my anachronistic mathematician friends that higher education in these United States can reform itself and return to intellectually decency. They just laugh at me and go back to their number theory. But this report comes very close to pushing me over to their side.
The end of the universe. Thanks Baylor University.
Frizbane Manley, at 11:15 am EDT on October 15, 2008
SAT scores
Thank you, Baylor. HS students are stressed about test scores. The PSAT given their sophomore year = Merit scholarships. The SAT/ACT taken their Junior year = most college scholarships. Class rank depends on how their HS counts AP classes. At Wyoming High School in Ohio, every kid in the top 10% has a GPA>4.0. Therefore, a kid with a 3.9 average and SAT scores>1200 will not have the class rank to qualify for the Ohio State Honors program/scholarship.
Pamela, at 1:00 pm EDT on October 15, 2008
Re-takes for all!
Baylor might want to consider allowing all of the professors denied tenure last spring a second chance as well. Free tenure if you can add another fifty published pages to your credentials notebook! No less bogus than these synthetic freshman SAT scores.
A,, Professor, at 2:41 pm EDT on October 15, 2008
Do the ends justify the means?
While I wholeheartedly agree that this is “pathetic” on Baylor’s part, let’s not forget that these students have the opportunity to reduce their college debt by between $300 and $1,300 in just a few hours of test-taking. That’s easy money, especially if you’re a lowly work-study student.
Granted, my personal philosophy is that those who need the most aid should receive the most. Pragmatically, though, we’ve seen far less conscionable things from student aid. As long as students win, let Baylor play their moronic game.
Wossamotta U., at 4:10 pm EDT on October 15, 2008
I hope to see comments from the College Board (and ACT) about this and similar mis-uses of their testing products. Aside from every other valid issue raised here, I suggest a cut to the chase — is any legal issue involved with this practice? Being as broad-minded as possible, the on-campus SAT test is, quoting the College Board web site, “for local placement and advisement purposes only.” The on-campus test scores are not meant for external usage. Apparently, Baylor initiated these practices with the clear intent to include these SAT scores in their externally reported data. The hoped for manipulation of ranking-related data is cynical and discouraging, but I wonder if these arguably falsified data were used for other purposes with more stringent requirements for veracity. If this is so, then I ask if these data were knowingly used on any report with legal conditions attached. If so, the institution should be held to account. How key administrators could be so divorced from educational principles is beyond me. I applaud the Baylor faculty for their quick denunciation of this practice. Perhaps this sad episode demonstrates what can happen when admission/financial aid operations are separated from the academic heart and avowed mission of an institution.
Geoduck, at 4:50 pm EDT on October 15, 2008
“Real” SAT scores
It disturbs me that a director of the college ranking program at U.S. News, Robert Morse, is apparently uninformed about the SAT testing procedure. Of course the SAT scores that these students EARNED are valid scores. Many college-bound students re-take standardized admission tests (ACT/SAT) in order to improve their scores. The test is conducted at a sanctioned location, following sanctioned protocols, and reported in a sanctioned fashion. These scores are as valid as any other sitting for the SAT. The use to which scores are put by the receiving educational institutions does not (in)validate the test itself, nor the achievement of the students taking the test. Mr. Morse owes an apology to the 300+ students that took the test in question, as well as all the other students across the country that re-take standardized tests in order to demonstrate their academic potential.
Lawrence Smith, Ph.D., Professor, at 6:10 pm EDT on October 15, 2008
Where’s the harm?
Kids can get paid for going on game shows like Jeopardy and answering questions. Why not for SAT retakes? I’m astounded that only 25% took the easy $300. This seems like a perfectly good way for students to reduce college debts. Notice that the writer of the Lariat (Baylor newspaper) op-ed was primarily miffed because the college didn’t make the opportunity available to upperclassmen too. And it’s great to see schools like Baylor gaming USN&WR (unless of course you are a fan of USN&WR and are worried that this type of behavior could put a hole in that magazine’s flawless ranking system).
Patrick Mattimore, teacher, at 8:25 am EDT on October 16, 2008
Dr. Longman...
is the best professor in the world!
J. Gross, at 9:25 pm EST on December 1, 2008
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Interpreting Morse Code
I have to laugh at Robert Morse’s commentin the last line of the article, ‘that [Morse] is not convinced that these scores should count “as a real SAT test and therefore this seem like a scam from that perspective.”’ IMO, the USNWR rankings are the scam and do a far greater disservice by encouraging behavior from schools seeking to manipulate their standing.
justaguy, parent & taxpayer, at 7:05 am EDT on October 15, 2008