Buffalo, NY - It’s 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday when Gianna Perugini’s alarm clock rouses her awake. The junior at J.W. Mitchell High School in Trinity, FL, is scheduled to take the SAT exam this morning – and the anxiety is setting in.
“All the in-state schools I applied to, required the submission of standardized test scores so I couldn’t opt out, even though I had an extremely strong college application,” Perugini says.
The standout high school student held a near-perfect grade point average (GPA), successfully completed 13 Advanced Placement (AP) courses, competed on the rowing team and participated in a long list of extracurricular activities.
Still, Perugini worried that “throwing my mediocre SAT score into the mix would hurt my college prospects – more than help.”
Students who apply to Canisius University no longer need to be concerned about such consequences.
Beginning in fall 2024, Canisius will become the first higher education institution in Western New York and one of only two Jesuit institutions in the nation (the other, Loyola New Orleans) to adopt a test-free policy for undergraduate admissions. The change erases all consideration of standardized aptitude tests (SAT and ACT) in an applicant’s evaluation for admission to the college.
“Canisius University is a place where leaders are made and that means, as an institution, we must also lead,” President Steve Stoute said in announcing the test-free initiative. “Standardized tests may have been how things were done but at Canisius, we’re setting a new standard and choosing to redefine the admissions process to better align with our two greatest priorities: our students and our values.”
SAT HISTORY 101
The U.S. educational system first introduced standardized tests around the turn of the 20th century, when an increasing number of students began applying to colleges and universities. The tests would serve as a tool to tighten the gates.
Carl Brigham, a psychologist who developed aptitude tests for the U.S. Army during World War I, devised the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which gauged students’ preparedness for college by questioning them in the areas of mathematics, history, language and physical sciences. Its counterpart, the American College Testing (ACT) exam, followed in the 1950s and assessed students on their high school-level competencies. The ACT and SAT exams soon became the gold standards for college admissions and remained so throughout the ensuing years.
More recently, however, the hours-long, multiple choice and essay exams have faced increased scrutiny and criticism.
“The educational landscape has changed dramatically, particularly since experiencing the Covid-19 pandemic and social unrest,” notes Buffalo Public School (BPS) Superintenent Tonja M. Williams MS ’90, EdD. “Students have experienced learning loss, trauma and grief over the last several years while at the same time demonstrating great strength, resiliency and a desire for academic success in spite of the odds that they experienced.”
Williams’ sentiments are echoed by a rising amount of research indicating that these high-stakes evaluations are no longer a worthwhile yardstick by which to measure students’ college potential.
NATURAL EXPERIMENT
“We’re learning that the only thing standardized admissions tests really measure is how well students take those tests,” says Canisius University Vice President for Enrollment Management Danielle D. Ianni, PhD. Ianni cites research conducted by Canisius during the pandemic when the college adopted a test-optional admissions policy that permitted applicants to choose whether to submit their SAT or ACT scores.
This natural experiment, of sorts, assessed a cohort of students, which included those who submitted test scores and those who did not, and examined their performance in high school and at Canisius.
“Initially, our research was intended to ensure that the decision to go test-optional was not diminishing Canisius’ academic environment,” Ianni recalls.
Not only was that not the case but the data pointed to something deeper.
Since implementing the test-optional policy in March 2020:
• Applications to Canisius increased 18 percent
• The number of students admitted to Canisius grew by 12 percent, and included gains in students of color and out-of-state students
• The average high school GPA improved for Canisius’ incoming classes
• The college’s retention rate (the percentage of first-year students who returned for sophomore year) remained consistent
“Overwhelmingly, our research found that the work students do in high school and the grades they earn have much greater predictive power relative to their success at Canisius than their scores on standardized tests,” Ianni continues.
The findings overturn conventional wisdom – and align with the most recent national research.
A 2020 study from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research revealed that students’ high school grade point averages are five times greater than aptitude tests at forecasting college success rates.
“Good grades combined with non-cognitive factors measure more than subject matter knowledge,” Ianni notes. “They provide a composite of a student’s personality traits, such as work ethic, perseverance, motivation, diligence and self-discipline – factors that help determine success.”
Furthermore, adds Ashley Konert Lanfear MS ’08, these attributes are measured over a four-year period, in many different types of classes and teaching formats.
“High school grades provide a more accurate representation of students because they show their achievements and progress on a day-to-day basis rather than performance on a single test,” says the school counselor at Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart.
As convincing as the research is, it does not provide a complete picture of standardized admissions tests – particularly their unintended consequences.
SOCIAL EQUITY
“The fact is, these tests unfairly advantage students with means and disadvantage students from underrepresented and underfunded communities, as well as students with cognitive learning disabilities,” President Stoute states. “The tests can even discourage students of these backgrounds from applying to college in the first place.”
With three-plus decades of experience in the education field, BPS Superintendent Williams sees firsthand how students’ socio-economic status can affect their access to education and opportunity.
“Research identifies that less household wealth oftentimes translates into fewer educational resources and opportunities, such as books and games in households and trips to museums and art galleries,” she says.
Mark Veronica, PhD, president of the High School Counselors’ Association of Western New York, concurs.
“In general, students from marginalized communities attend lower-funded schools. These schools have higher student-to-counselor ratios, which gives students less access to qualified advisors who can help them navigate the college admissions process.” Veronica adds that students at lower-funded schools are also less likely to have access to tutors and standardized test prep classes, and they are less likely to be able to afford them.
“As a Jesuit college, ours is a faith that does justice,” President Stoute continues. “By going test-free, we are eliminating the barriers to a high-quality education for students from all backgrounds and those most in need of the transformative power of a Canisius education.”
HOLISTIC ADMISSIONS
As it eliminates standardized test scores, Canisius is emphasizing its holistic review of applicants that takes into account both academic and non-academic factors.
Certainly, Canisius will continue to consider students’ attributes and academic merits, including their high school records, the strength of their respective curricula and performance. Resumes, letters of recommendation, community service and the completion of a college essay also remain requirements.
But the new mission-aligned admissions process makes more room for prospective students to showcase their unique interests, backgrounds, perspectives and talents in ways that standardized tests just can’t capture.
Under the new policy, for example, applicants can submit a personal essay on a topic of their choosing or participate in an interview with a Canisius professor or alumnus/a. Gianna Perugini ’26 says she would have submitted her published research on the behavior of Beluga whales.
“My high school research paper is one of the things I am most proud of and it directly relates to my major in animal behavior, ecology and conservation (ABEC),” says the first-year student who chose Canisius for her college education. “Having the admissions counselors see what I am capable of doing in the field I want to go into, would have been a great opportunity.”
Canisius is also encouraging students to submit virtual portfolios as an additional alternative. For some, this may even include their activity in the digital environment and social media.
“Today’s college-bound students are on the leading edge of the latest social media platforms and many are using them as a vehicle for good,” Ianni states.
In fact, by the time this generation begins applying to college they have likely leveraged any number of social media channels (think TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch) to generate awareness about an issue, develop fundraisers in support of an important cause or build a small business.
If Lio Salazar ’25 were applying to Canisius today, the ABEC major and theatre arts minor would submit a performance video and his anime* collection.
“Providing a portfolio like this allows students to show off something that they’re good at on an individual level instead of being compared to other students based on a test,” Salazar says.
Without the noise of standardized test scores, Canisius can more clearly focus on its mission of inspiring and educating a new generation of leaders for the modern world. These are the leaders who - no matter their fields - will be guided by principle, empowered to challenge the status quo and prepared to take action to address today’s most pressing challenges.
“Leadership in the modern world means responding to unprecedented challenges with nonstandard solutions,” President Stoute concludes. “It will take leaders who are anything but standard to change our world.”
