{"id":226,"date":"2020-05-29T03:38:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T03:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2-50-17-66-55.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/2020\/05\/29\/2020-5-28-silver-lining-in-dark-cloud-of-covid-end-of-standardized-testing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T22:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T06:37:33","slug":"covid-end-of-standardized-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/cirkled-in-specific\/covid-end-of-standardized-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Lining in Dark Cloud of COVID – End of Standardized Testing."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(This article authored by our CEO Reetu Gupta was originally <\/em>published in Puget Sound Business Journal<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While COVID-19 has dramatically altered many aspects of our lives, the pandemic has also greatly challenged our education system. Before COVID-19, the American education system relied heavily on standardized tests and lagged in adopting new technologies. Thanks to COVID-19, we are beginning to revolutionize our education system. While the pandemic has been detrimental in many ways, there is a silver lining in this dark cloud: moving our college admissions to 21st century and making it equitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the blink of an eye, more than 60 million K\u201312 students in the U.S. shifted to fully online learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As COVID-19 disrupted the College Board<\/strong> spring exams, colleges and universities began reconsidering standardized testing in admissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many have long questioned the use of standardized test scores in the admissions process. Relying on a single score to judge complex and unique students feels outdated. This is especially true given the technology available today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, however, this practice leads to inequities in higher education. Today, the rate of at-risk youth going to college is almost 30% lower than that of their peers. And this gap is not primarily caused by finances because Last year, $2.6 Billion in Pell grant went unclaimed, according to NerdWallet<\/a>. These kids never take the tests, preventing them from getting on colleges\u2019 radars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"why<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then, in early 2019, almost one year before COVID disruption, there was another disruption shook higher education \u2013 a college admission scandal, nicknamed as \u201cVarsity Blue Scandal<\/a>\u201d. Prosecutors found several wealthy parents guilty of bribing test centers and admissions officers to secure admission for their children at highly selective colleges such as Yale University<\/strong>, Stanford University<\/strong>, and University of Southern California<\/strong>. How was that possible? The rich parents only had one number to manipulate: their kid\u2019s test score.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lockdowns have forced testing agencies to cancel many standardized exams. As a result, high school students now have limited chances to take the SAT or ACT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could this pandemic, along with the scrutiny standardized testing faced during last year\u2019s scandal, finally end this outdated selection method?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Cirkled In<\/strong>, we surveyed 1,100 students across the country. The results show that many students are rethinking their college plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleges must now explore new evaluation methods, such as online portfolios, to assess applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Romer, Stanford economist<\/a> once said \u2013 \u201cA crisis is a terrible thing to waste\u201d<\/strong>. The silver lining of this pandemic might be an education revolution that would have otherwise taken decades to reach. These times have challenged American families and communities. However, COVID-19 may push us to build a more innovative education system. It could also drive improvements in health care and strengthen the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will only come out of this pandemic stronger if we stand together for the change we wish to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our CEO, Reetu Gupta<\/strong>, wrote this full article, and the Puget Sound Business Journal<\/strong> published it. You can be accessed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This article authored by our CEO Reetu Gupta was originally published in Puget Sound Business Journal) While COVID-19 has dramatically altered many aspects of our lives, the pandemic has also greatly challenged our education system. Before COVID-19, the American education system relied heavily on standardized tests and lagged in adopting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cirkled-in-specific"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}