Research Partners
EqRC developed this data hub, and funding for admissions justice work was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Explore the research partner findings below:
Equity in Testing Policy and College Applications
In a Nutshell
The College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative (Cafco-Lab) is a multi-institutional partnership of faculty, researchers, and scholar-practitioners from the University of Maryland, College Park, Pennsylvania State University, the Common Application, and Southern Methodist University. Cafco-Lab seeks to use research to inform efforts to advance equity in college admissions and institutional contexts.
Over 1,700 institutions use test-optional policies as of Fall 2023. Test-optional is a system that does not require applicants to colleges and universities to submit ACT or SAT scores. With support from a $1.4 million grant, from November 2021 to January 2024, CAFCOLAB has researched how test-optional policies may be linked to shifts in application and enrollment patterns for Black, LatinX/e, and Indigenous (BIPOC) students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Goals
Cafco-Lab's research aims to accomplish four goals:
- Examine changes in admissions for BIPOC students during the COVID-19 pandemic under test-optional policies with a special attention to application numbers, admit rates, and enrollment patterns.
- Explore admissions professionals’ and senior higher education leaders' perspectives on test-optional and test-free policy adaptation based on surveys and interview data. (Findings indicate that admissions professionals were enthusiastic about moving away from required testing.)
- Examine the presumed inequality in components of college applications, including analysis of extracurricular activities and counselor letters of recommendation.
- Develop a college search tool that allows students, counselors, and families to more effectively search for institutions that meet their interests and priorities in the college application process.
Current Work and Future Plans
Cafco-Lab has released the following, or plans to do so in the future:
- A policy report on the experiences of admission professionals in adapting and implementing test-optional policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- A policy brief on perspectives of admissions professionals on test-free admissions.
- A working paper and policy brief examining the relationship between test-optional admissions adaption and admissions/enrollment outcomes.
- The development of a tool that students, counselors, and families can use to find colleges and track college admissions requirements.
- A working paper and policy brief on inequality in extracurricular activities as reported on college applications.
- A working paper and policy brief on inequality in letters of recommendations written by high school counselors.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) is composed of more than 26,000 professionals from around the world who are dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education. In this project, NACAC used its unique position at the intersection of research and practice to serve as a convener for those researching changes to standardized testing requirements and their impact on access for traditionally underrepresented students.
In convening this work, NACAC:
- Established and coordinated the activities of an advisory group of policy experts, researchers, practitioners, and student advocates.
- Connected researchers with NACAC’s engaged membership network of college admission counseling professionals.
- Worked with a communication firm to broadly disseminate the outcomes and resources generated by the research partners.
This project furthers NACAC’s long-standing commitment to understanding the equity implications of various standardized testing and admission policies. Previous work on these important topics includes:
- Centering Students in the College Admission Process (2023) – Findings in this report, conducted by the NACAC Ad Hoc Committee on Centering Student Voices in the College Admission, encourage colleges to include students in all phases of the admission policy and practice decision-making process.
- Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access (2022) – A report from NACAC and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators that outlines recommendations for redesigning the college admission process with equity as a primary focus.
- NACAC Research on Standardized Testing (2008-2021) – NACAC has conducted two separate commissions and a number of research studies on the effects of standardized testing on college admission.