Higher education in decline due to elimination of standardized testing, columnist argues

In Las Vegas Review-Journal, columnist Victor Joecks recently argued that higher education is setting itself up for a “slow decline” due to the elimination of standardized testing. 

This “widespread trend” in higher ed is largely due to “diversity” efforts and woke ideology, according to Joecks.

”Dropping tests from the equation is an attempt to institute affirmative action by another name,” he writes. “When colleges don’t consider SAT or ACT scores, they generally admit more Black and Hispanic students.”

[RELATED: College coaches call to remove SAT and ACT test requirements]

Joeck goes on to point out how Asian students are often the victims of such efforts.

”The likely corollary [of diversity efforts] is that they will exclude more Asian students. For some bizarre reason, the left is selective about when they deem Asian Americans to be a hallmark of racial diversity.”

Joecks broadens his critique of the decline of higher ed by discussing how “woke virtue signaling” has been prioritized at American universities over “intellectual diversity.”

”A survey of seven universities by the College Fix found that half of their departments didn’t contain a single Republican. So much for teaching students how to think and debate. But even many professors aren’t being selected on their academic merits. Even MIT now demands that prospective faculty submit a diversity statement,” Joecks explains.

[RELATED: College ditches SAT/ACT requirement to ‘increase the diversity’ of students] 

Campus Reform has covered a multitude of cases this year where universities and colleges across the country threw out testing requirements, in some cases motivated by woke ideology.

In May, for example, Campus Reform reported on the American Bar Association’s recommendation that the LSAT be thrown out as an admission requirement for law schools.

Similarly, in July, Campus Reform reported on the University System of Maryland’s decision to discontinue SAT/ACT requirements for member universities.

Campus Reform reached out to Victor Joecks for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.