LSU has joined a number of selective colleges in reinstating SAT/ACT requirements:

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Students applying to LSU in Baton Rouge will once again need to submit standardized test scores after the Board of Supervisors voted Friday to drop the test-optional policy from the flagship campus.

“It will be just another variable that we use in a total comprehensive evaluation of the students,” LSU System President Wade Rousse said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, applicants have been able to choose whether to include SAT or ACT results. LSU made the test-optional policy official in June 2022, following the trend of other universities that questioned whether test scores serve as a reliable indicator of future academic performance.

But Chancellor James Dalton said institutional data no longer supports deemphasizing standardized test results. For students who chose not to submit scores from 2021 to 2024, average retention rates were 4.3% lower and average first-term GPAs were 0.29 points lower than their counterparts who included scores with their application, according to LSU data.

LSU officials said they will not draw a line for how well students must perform on the tests to qualify for admission but rather use the scores as a piece of the portfolio when considering applicants.

“We’re not setting a hard minimum for admissions,” Dalton said. “We’re going to use it as one component of our comprehensive evaluation of students.”

The change to the admissions policy passed unanimously. Still, some supervisors expressed concern that the return to mandatory standardized test scores could hurt students who are from rural areas, lack access to study resources or have other extenuating circumstances.

“There are plenty of kids who we want at LSU who don’t come from households where they can afford to get that additional help on testing,” Supervisor James Williams said.

Other supervisors said they understood the potential weaknesses of test scores but felt admissions officers would be able to take all aspects of the student’s application into account.

They argued the change aligns with other institutions that have reversed course on relaxed test policies in recent years.

“You see Chapel Hill, Florida and our peers, Alabama and others, moving towards bringing this back as a tool,” board member Scott Ballard said. “That gives me confidence.”

Test scores are still mandatory for the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, the state scholarship program run by the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, regardless of institutions’ specific testing policies.

The reinstatement of test scores in Baton Rouge admissions will roll out in two phases, according to the policy. For the summer 2027 semester, potential students with cumulative weighted GPAs below 3.5 will need to submit test scores with their application. Starting in the summer 2028, all applicants will be required to include test results.

Rousse said the new policy mirrors LSU’s balance of “excellence and accessibility” moving forward.

“A standardized test score does not define a student,” Rousse said. “However, standards do define elite institutions. That is the balance we are seeking.”

 
Inside Higher Ed takes a look at preliminary statistics for the 2026 admissions cycle, and finds that standardized test score submissions are on the rise:

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For the first time since before the pandemic, more students applying to start college in fall 2026 are choosing to submit test scores than not. This isn’t based on any resurgence of colleges requiring test scores; the vast majority of institutions are still test optional, according to FairTest, a policy organization that advocates against standardized tests, and just six new institutions started requiring score submissions this admissions cycle. According to Common App, just 5 percent of the institutions on their platform require test scores.

The exact reasons for such a dramatic shift are unclear. It correlates with a slight increase in the number of students who are taking standardized tests. In September, the SAT announced over two million students took the test, up significantly from a low of 1.51 million in 2021 and a slight increase from 2024. The number of students who took the ACT rose from 1.3 million in 2021 to 1.38 million in 2025.

“I’m not entirely surprised, given that some schools, particularly all the Ivies except Columbia [University], and some of the state schools, have revoked test-optional policies,” said Harry Feder, executive director of FairTest. “I think what we’re seeing is a concentrated campaign by forces that are trying to convince folks that standardized tests and the SAT and the ACT are a necessary gatekeeper for high-level universities” despite the fact that there is evidence to the contrary, he said.

In total, nearly 784,000 students have submitted test scores while around 58,000 fewer than last year have submitted no test scores. The number of applicants submitting test scores has risen dramatically in the past two years—22.9 percent—compared to the two years following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it increased just 6 percent from 2021–22 to 2023–24.

Low-income, underrepresented minority and first-generation students remain less likely to report test scores.

 
The Common App report has additional details

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As reported previously, the share of Common App members requiring standardized test scores has changed dramatically over the past decade — from about 55% in 2019–20 to an all-time low of just 4% in 2023–24. This season, 5% of members require a test score to submit an application (essentially unchanged from last season).

…the number of applicants reporting a test score continues to grow, with a 10% increase among reporters, while the number of non-reporters has decreased by 6% since this time during the 2024–25 season. While the majority of applicants opted not to report a test score through March 1 during the 2024-25 application cycle, score reporters outnumbered non-reporters by a considerable margin so far this season.

 
Akil Bello examines a recent Hechinger Report regarding an experiment that found that parents trust grades more than standardized test scores to assess a student's development:

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The Study, The Article, and the Assumption Buried Inside Both

Derek Rury (Oregon State University) and Ariel Kalil (the university where fun goes to die) asked over 2,000 self-selected, paid parents on an online survey platform to advise other parents on how much time and money to invest in hypothetical fifth graders, given varying combinations of grades and test scores. They found that when grades were high but test scores were low, parents didn’t invest more. When grades were low but test scores were high, they did. Parents weighted grades over test scores consistently, across a sample that was 68% white.

The finding is real and worth discussing. What bothers me is the conclusion. Both the researchers and the reporter, Jill Barshay, conclude that parents are being misled. That grade inflation (is grade inflation in 5th grade even a thing?) has created a cognitive bias preventing rational investment. Barshay writes that “inflated grades may feel encouraging, but they can send false signals both to students, who may study less, and to parents, who may see less reason to step in.”

The assumption baked into both the study and the article is that standardized test scores are the correct signal, and that parents who weight grades over tests are making a mistake. Neither stops to ask the obvious question: why would parents trust test scores?

The article puts “the burden” on parents to “read report cards with a critical eye.” It never once asks them to apply that same eye to test score reports. It never asks whether those reports have earned the trust being demanded of parents.

What Would Actually Fix This

I don't raise these criticisms to defend grade inflation. The divergence between grades and test scores is real and worth taking seriously. But the solution to one imperfect signal is not to blindly elevate another one. The solution is to figure out what is signal and what is noise. Right now, test score reports are generating a lot of noise.

We’ve been lionizing test scores and other metrics for a long time, often without asking whether the tools actually serve the people they're supposed to serve. If we want parents to trust and act on standardized test scores, here’s what has to change:

---Test reports must connect to the classroom. Telling a parent their child scored in the 34th percentile in “reading: informational” means nothing. It becomes information when it connects to what their child is actually doing in reading class, what specific skills are lagging, and what a parent can do about it at home.

---Test reports must be written for parents, not statisticians. Scaled scores, standard errors of measurement, normal curve equivalents — these are tools for researchers. A parent receiving a score report is not a researcher. The report should answer three questions in plain language: Is my child on track? Where specifically are they struggling? What should I do about it?

---Test scores must be more than defensible rankings. The entire architecture of most standardized test reporting is built around telling parents who their kids are better than (the core of norm-referencing). This is almost entirely useless for a parent trying to make decisions. What a parent needs is criterion-referenced information: can my child do this specific thing? Does my child understand this concept? Has my child mastered this skill (and why it matters)? The comparison to a national norm produces a ranking. Rankings are not parenting advice.

---Test reports must acknowledge their own limits. Benchmarks show one point in time and lose predictive value rapidly as you project forward. A test given in 5th grade is not a reliable indicator of “college and career readiness” — not because tests are inherently bad, but because human development is complex, nonlinear, and massively influenced by what happens between 5th grade and 12th grade. Every score report should say this clearly, the way a financial advisor is required to disclose that “past performance is not indicative of future results.” Instead, we get the opposite: language that implies these scores are stable, predictive, and definitive.

The Upshot

The researchers conclude that “combating grade inflation may be more consequential for parental behavior than expanding test score dissemination.” Maybe. But there’s a third option they don’t consider: making test score dissemination worth something.

Parents aren’t irrational for trusting what they can understand, verify, and act on. They’re doing exactly what we’d want any careful person to do with imperfect information. If we want them to weight test scores more appropriately, we have to give them test score information that actually helps them parent. Right now we’re handing them an opaque number, telling them it’s more objective than the teacher who knows their child, and then expressing dismay when they put it in a drawer.

The problem Rury and Kalil have identified is real. The solution isn’t to blame parents for not trusting, undermine trust in teachers/grades, argue for spending money they don’t have, or convince parents that test scores deserve their trust. The solution is to build test reporting systems that actually earn trust.

 
An article from FOX Baltimore cites a troubling trend of significantly lower SAT scores for both the state of Maryland and for the city itself:

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Student outcomes continue to decline in Baltimore City Public Schools. Despite record high funding, SAT scores in Baltimore have hit record lows. This year, taxpayers will give the school system about $1.9 billion.

“Of course, we want to see our kids be doing better,” explained Maryland State Senate President Bill Ferguson.

At a recent press conference, Project Baltimore asked Ferguson about an ongoing problem not just in Baltimore City Schools, but throughout Maryland – declining SAT scores.

“Do you find this drop in SAT scores acceptable? And who do you think the taxpayers should hold accountable?” Questioned a Project Baltimore Producer.

Project Baltimore, in 2021, first began reporting on declining SAT scores in Baltimore City Schools when we spoke with, then city resident, KJ McKenzie. At the time, SAT scores had dropped from 910 in 2017 to 892 in 2020.

“The education system is run very poorly,” McKenzie told Project Baltimore in 2021. “This is a report card for them. It's not just a report card for our children. It's sad and it's frustrating.”

The district explained, in 2021, more students were taking the SATs which “often corresponds to a short-term decrease in scores.” But it turns out the decrease was not “short-term.”

“Maryland is falling further and further behind,” parental choice advocate Corey DeAngelis told Project Baltimore in 2025.

Last year, in 2025, Project Baltimore again reported on this topic when the average SAT scores in Baltimore City dropped from 892 between 2020 and 867 in 2024.

At that time, in a statement, the Maryland State Department of Education explained it had “proposed an Academic Excellence Program that will help increase student achievement” by “prioritizing schools with low or declining academic performance” such as Baltimore City.

But that approach did not seem to work. Now, the SAT scores of students in City Schools have hit a new record low – falling to 856 in 2025, which is nearly a 60-point drop from 2017. These scores are the lowest in the state. However, this is not just a Baltimore City problem. Throughout Maryland, SAT scores are down from 1063 in 2017 to 1001 in 2025.

“Over the last six years, I think we've seen the pandemic having an unprecedented impact on educational outcomes across the board,” explained Ferguson.

 
Indiana has finalized its decision to require public colleges in the state to accept the Classic Learning Test in lieu of SAT/ACT:

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Under a new law, Indiana public colleges will soon have to accept the Classic Learning Test — a standardized test favored by the Trump administration and conservative lawmakers — as an acceptable substitute for the SAT or ACT.

Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed SB 88 on Thursday, after both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly passed the bill largely along party lines. The change will take effect in July, making Indiana at least the fifth state where lawmakers or public college systems have enacted policies geared toward expanding use of the CLT.

The new CLT requirement is unlikely to create immediate changes at most of the state’s public colleges, as the majority offer test-optional admissions. The law showcases the continued growth of the CLT, which is popular among Christian colleges and K-12 schools.

In 2023, the State University System of Florida became the first public college network to approve the use of the CLT for granting admissions to its institutions and awarding state financial aid.

Since then, conservative state lawmakers have increasingly discussed and passed legislation focused on the CLT. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think tank, has published model legislation for state lawmakers to authorize the CLT as an alternative to the SAT and ACT.

At the federal level, Indiana Sen. Jim Banks, a Republican, introduced a bill in May that would have required military colleges to accept the CLT, as well as mandate that all federally-run K-12 schools administer the test to each 11th grade class.