It takes more than traditional college testing to evaluate the diverse group of students clamoring for admission to colleges and universities, a leading proponent of “noncognitive assessment” told more than 140 faculty and staff on hand March 10 for the Diversity, Merit and Higher Education forum at Palmer Commons.
“Our two current measures (SAT, ACT) don’t have much to tell us. They don’t work well for a lot of our so-called diversity groups,” said William Sedlacek, the author of “Beyond the Big Test: Noncognitive Assessment in Higher Education.”
Sedlacek, professor emeritus of education at the University of Maryland, said research shows his eight-factor Noncognitive Variable System model more fairly evaluates a diverse student population as it provides valuable assessments of students’ positive self-concepts, realistic self-appraisals, leadership experience and other factors.
Sedlacek was the featured speaker at the forum presented by the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) at U-M. The purpose of the national forum was to move beyond traditional admissions tests and deepen the dialogue on diversity issues in the meaning of “merit” in higher education access and success.
He delivered the message to a campus community still committed to maintaining diversity in the wake of a 2006 ballot issue banning use of affirmative action in admissions. Sedlacek said his assessment system was deemed legal following a court challenge at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, partly because it does not establish quotas.
“If you use my dimensions what will happen is you will get a more diverse class without focusing on gender or race, and they will do well in school,” he said.
Experts at the conference discussed ways in which underrepresented students’ access to higher education could be improved by expanding definitions and indicators of merit beyond conventional academic criteria.
Participants included john powell, professor and director of the Kirwan Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University; Charles Ramos and Steven Robbins, ACT officials; and Richard Roberts, principal research scientist in the Center for New Constructs in the Educational Testing Service’s Research & Development Division. Campus experts included William Collins, minority affairs director of the Comprehensive Studies Program; E. Royster Harper, vice president for student affairs; John Matlock, associate vice provost and director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives; Ted Spencer, associate vice provost and executive director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions; Pat Gurin, Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women’s Studies; and Ed St. John, the Algo D. Henderson Collegiate Professor of Education.
“We’re especially pleased to see the breadth of participation in this national forum — from all 19 University of Michigan schools and colleges to the many others viewing the webcast from across the nation,” said Phillip Bowman, NCID director. Representatives from Educational Testing Service, ACT and other national experts provided ideas on how to reduce the misuse of admissions tests by using noncogntive constructs in more comprehensive admission, pipeline and retention strategies.
In his talk that opened the forum, Sedlacek said his Noncognitive Variable System is research-based, uses multiple factors to assess students, and is low cost. Sedlacek said Oregon State University uses the system to guide its admissions polices, adding that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Research Advisory Committee on which he serves also uses the system to assess scholarship applicants.
The implementation of Sedlacek’s system has sparked public interest in institutions that have implemented it. “You can actually get better people in all sorts of dimensions, the pool of applicants actually had higher grades and test scores, so that’s a good recruiting tool,” he said.
