IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v174y2019icp13-17.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

SAT optional policies: Do they influence graduate quality, selectivity or diversity?

Author

Listed:
  • Saboe, Matt
  • Terrizzi, Sabrina

Abstract

Despite many conversations regarding the applicability and relevance of the SAT as a valid admissions tool, there is limited evidence regarding the effects of test-optional policies on various aspects of an institution’s effectiveness and the collegiate experiences within each institution. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) coupled with a difference-in-difference analysis, we find that test-optional policies have very limited effects. We find SAT optional policies to have no significant effect on diversity or enrolled student quality. The only statistically significant effect we find is a brief increase in the number of applicants in response to the new policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Saboe, Matt & Terrizzi, Sabrina, 2019. "SAT optional policies: Do they influence graduate quality, selectivity or diversity?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 13-17.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:174:y:2019:i:c:p:13-17
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2018.10.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176518304300
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2018.10.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2008. "Heteroskedasticity-Robust Standard Errors for Fixed Effects Panel Data Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(1), pages 155-174, January.
    2. Joseph P. Romano & Michael Wolf, 2005. "Exact and Approximate Stepdown Methods for Multiple Hypothesis Testing," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 100, pages 94-108, March.
    3. Robinson, Michael & Monks, James, 2005. "Making SAT scores optional in selective college admissions: a case study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 393-405, August.
    4. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    5. Romano, Joseph P. & Wolf, Michael, 2016. "Efficient computation of adjusted p-values for resampling-based stepdown multiple testing," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 38-40.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wouter Dessein & Alex Frankel & Navin Kartik, 2023. "Test-Optional Admissions," Papers 2304.07551, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    2. Isabella Dobrescu & Alberto Motta & Richard Holden & Adrian Piccoli, 2021. "Cultural Context in Standardized Tests," Discussion Papers 2021-08, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    3. Nguyen, Hieu, 2020. "Free college? Assessing enrollment responses to the Tennessee Promise program," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Bleemer, Zachary, 2023. "Affirmative action and its race-neutral alternatives," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chor, Elise & Andresen, Martin Eckhoff & Kalil, Ariel, 2016. "The impact of universal prekindergarten on family behavior and child outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 168-181.
    2. Karlsson, Martin & Nilsson, Therese & Pichler, Stefan, 2014. "The impact of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic on economic performance in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-19.
    3. David Roodman & James G. MacKinnon & Morten Ørregaard Nielsen & Matthew D. Webb, 2019. "Fast and wild: Bootstrap inference in Stata using boottest," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 19(1), pages 4-60, March.
    4. Krekel, Christian & De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Fancourt, Daisy & Layard, Richard, 2021. "A local community course that raises wellbeing and pro-sociality: Evidence from a randomised controlled trial," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 322-336.
    5. Capuno, Joseph & Kraft, Aleli & O'Donnell, Owen, 2021. "Effectiveness of clinic-based cardiovascular disease prevention: A randomized encouragement design experiment in the Philippines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    6. Heath, Davidson & Ringgenberg, Matthew C. & Samadi, Mehrdad & Werner, Ingrid M., 2019. "Reusing Natural Experiments," Working Paper Series 2019-21, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    7. Rahel Aichele, 2013. "Trade, Climate Policy and Carbon Leakage - Theory and Empirical Evidence," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 49.
    8. Packalen, Mikko & Wirjanto, Tony S., 2012. "Inference about clustering and parametric assumptions in covariance matrix estimation," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Jacoby, Hanan G. & Mansuri, Ghazala & Fatima, Freeha, 2021. "Decentralizing corruption: Irrigation reform in Pakistan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    10. Biroli, Pietro & Del Boca, Daniela & Heckman, James J. & Heckman, Lynne Pettler & Koh, Yu Kyung & Kuperman, Sylvi & Moktan, Sidharth & Pronzato, Chiara D. & Ziff, Anna L., 2018. "Evaluation of the Reggio approach to early education," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 1-32.
    11. Eric C. Edwards, 2016. "What Lies Beneath? Aquifer Heterogeneity and the Economics of Groundwater Management," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 453-491.
    12. Philipp Jaschke & Sulin Sardoschau & Marco Tabellini, 2023. "Scared Straight? Threat and Assimilation of Refugees in Germany," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 384, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    13. Grácio, Matilde & Vicente, Pedro C., 2021. "Information, get-out-the-vote messages, and peer influence: Causal effects on political behavior in Mozambique," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    14. Chantal Toledo & Sofia Berto Villas-Boas, 2019. "Safe or Not? Consumer Responses to Recalls with Traceability," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 519-541, September.
    15. Francesco Bogliacino & Valeria Cirillo & Cristiano Codagnone & Marta Fana & Francisco Lupanez-Villanueva & Giuseppe A Veltri, 2019. "Shaping individual preferences for social protection: the case of platform workers," LEM Papers Series 2019/21, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    16. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2022. "Fiscal rules and creative accounting: Evidence from Japanese municipalities," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    17. Clarke, Damian & Cortés, Gustavo & Vergara, Diego, 2017. "Growing Together: Assessing Equity and Effciency in an Early-Life Health Program in Chile," Research Department working papers 1139, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    18. Fracchia, Mattia & Molina-Millán, Teresa & Vicente, Pedro C., 2023. "Motivating volunteer health workers in an African capital city," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    19. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    20. Giaccherini, Matilde & Gilli, Marianna & Mancinelli, Susanna & Zoli, Mariangela, 2021. "Nudging food waste decisions at restaurants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    SAT optional; Selectivity; Higher education; Enrollment quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:174:y:2019:i:c:p:13-17. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.