HBCU Storyteller Spotlight
White House Initiative on HBCUs Deputy Director and Howard University Professor Ivory Toldson challenges imposed admissions standards that are tied to standardized testing on Facebook.
Rarely, do the mostly prestigious universities, including Stanford and Harvard, use a hard cutoff score for the ACT or SAT to gain admission. Yet, a student needs a 20 on the ACT or 940 on the SAT to gain admission to Southern University and A&M College – Baton Rouge, LA.
Adding to the absurdity, a student only needs a 2.0 GPA for admission. So a student with a 3.8 GPA and 18 on the ACT would be rejected, but a student with a 2.0 GPA and a 20 on the ACT would be accepted.
There is no credible research to justify this practice. Further, it goes against recommendations by the test manufacturers and the ethical guidelines of APA and AERA.
SU did not establish this practice. It was an imposition by the State of Louisiana. While such an imposition is rare in states with small Black populations, similar measures have been introduced in Arkansas and North Carolina.
This practice has lead to an exponential growth in the Black population at community colleges, and steep enrollment declines in state HBCUs in these states.
