Rebecca Pollard - Excerpts from Capstone Report to Rappaport Institute

Fellows work directly with officials from state and local public agencies in the Greater Boston area on policy research and management projects. In addition, at the end of the summer program, all fellows are required to submit a capstone project or report that addresses the policy and management challenges posed by their work. Here are some excerpts from our public policy fellows.

Rebecca Pollard

Harvard professor and college-access expert Bridget Terry Long recalls a visit to the Boston Public Schools where she discussed the kids’ fears about gaining admittance to a school and trying to pay for it. She gave them financial aid strategies and application hints. Then she reflected, "It’s sad that I needed to be there at all. All students should have resources like me to help them navigate the complex higher-education system."

The stakes for making higher education accessible to all are high. The difference in incomes of college graduates and their high school graduate counterparts is estimated to be $1 million over a lifetime. The challenge is two-fold: first kids have got to get in, and they’ve got to make it through.
In December 1995, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education adopted new admissions standards for all four-year public colleges and universities in the state. The aim was partly to pressure high schools to better prepare their students for the rigors of college-level work, and to create uniform standards of proficiency among state institutions. Campuses began phasing in the new standards in the fall of 1997.

The Board of Higher Education’s (BHE’s) Admissions Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives from the state, colleges, and guidance counselors, convened in fall 2003 to reexamine the standards. In preparation, I surveyed approximately a dozen parties across Massachusetts, inquiring about the degree to which these standards are fair and effective at measuring students’ success in college. The most common response I encountered was that the standards are “fine.” Or, “They seem to work pretty well.” Indeed, the admissions personnel acknowledged the general relevance of the standards as an adequate baseline with which to screen potential applicants. Few, however, displayed similar confidence in the use of the standards as a tool in promoting higher student achievement—or success—once students arrive at college.

I spoke with enrollment officials, a high school guidance counselor, experts in college access issues, an expert in community-based higher education information, and the College Board’s New England Director. The interview subjects often spoke as if they worked on separate "teams," with different goals and motivations. Many interview subjects assumed that BHE or the Department of Education, which oversees K-12 systems, would never understand their unique challenges as admissions officers, or that guidance counselors would never have the same view of college access as a higher education professional. They share a concern with low-income and historically-disadvantaged high schoolers in the Commonwealth, but disagree about how to help them.

A major challenge will be the new SAT Writing Test that is set to be administered in the spring of 2005. Currently, the state requires applicants to take both the SAT verbal and mathematics sections of the test to be considered for admittance. Admissions officers look at these scores to evaluate a candidate’s readiness for academic work. The College Board, which has administered the SAT since 1926, decided to create a writing portion of the test after years of complaints from higher educators that students were coming to college without adequate writing skills. College time spent on remediation had simply become too great. By adding a writing component to the SAT, high schools would place greater emphasis on teaching writing skills. At the very least, college admissions officers might have a better gauge of who comes prepared to craft a coherent essay.

In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam includes an essay to evaluate writing skills. A study called the American Diploma Project (conducted by Achieve, Inc., the Education Trust, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and the National Alliance of Business), recently measured the MCAS Writing Test against higher education standards to test its viability as either an admissions or placement tool. The study found that despite being first administered in the 10th grade, a score of 14 or better on the MCAS Writing test would "definitely show" a student is ready for "college-level work." Additionally, the study found the MCAS to be a better indicator than the Accuplacer exam, which most state colleges use to place their incoming freshman in the appropriate level of first-year English.

The introduction of the writing portion of the SAT comes at a time of continuing dispute over the role of MCAS exams. Among the questions are: What impact will the new SAT Writing exam have on low-income, historically disadvantaged, and first-generation college-going students? Would the adoption of a new policy help or harm the students for whom the BHE’s mission is aimed? For instance, would kids be inspired to take the test or be discouraged by MCAS "burn out?"

The MCAS officially became a requirement to graduate from a public high school for the class of 2003. Due to the political turmoil associated with the MCAS, the state’s public colleges and universities do not have access to MCAS scores or results. They do not have the right to utilize the scores in admissions or placement decisions.

The new SAT Writing test need not be viewed as an antagonist to MCAS, but a complementary way to insist that writing be among the skills critical to success beyond high school. The BHE can use this new test as a way to improve the state’s other admissions standards and to demonstrate that college is accessible if students know what they need to get there.

The addition of a writing portion to the SAT is an opportunity to rethink the purpose and direction of the standards for admission the Commonwealth adopted eight years ago. Historically, the governance structures of K-12 and higher education have been distinct and divergent, with a fragmented system that divides the state’s universities from its public four-year and community colleges. Whether the BHE decides to mandate use of the SAT Writing exam as a criterion for admission, a tool in freshmen course placement, or not at all, the agency will be convening a useful conversation with the state’s broad K-16 community.