Star Tribune
Most Minnesota colleges stick with test-optional admissions policies
Most Minnesota colleges are sticking with the test-optional policies they adopted during the pandemic, forgoing the use of an SAT or ACT score in admissions, even as Dartmouth College and some others reinstate the standardized test requirement.
Many colleges nationwide switched to a test-optional policy when the pandemic canceled in-person activities, including the SAT and ACT tests. However, an effort to reduce the influence of the SAT and ACT in college admissions had been in the works long before the pandemic because of the way scores can be influenced by economic disparities and other factors.
At St. Olaf College, Dean of Admissions Chris George said switching to test-optional, which the college planned to do before the pandemic, has been a major success.
“I think it matches what’s important to us,” George said. “Our data show that the classes that a student took, the grades they received, as well as the way they challenged themselves in high school with our holistic review was a better predictor for us.”
Dartmouth announced in early February that it would start requiring the SAT or ACT again, starting with applicants for the class of 2029. Some other colleges, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Georgetown University, have also retired their test-optional policies. In a statement about the change, Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said the college made the switch after analyzing data collected during the test-optional period since the pandemic that showed that a holistic review without test scores missed students who might have stood out with that extra piece of information.
“In particular, SAT/ACTs can be especially helpful in identifying students from less-resourced backgrounds who would succeed at Dartmouth but might otherwise be missed in a test-optional environment,” Beilock wrote in a letter to the Dartmouth community.
Still, she acknowledged that the tests themselves “reflect inequality in society and in educational systems across the nation” and said the scores would be considered within the context of where applicants went to high school. For instance, she noted a high, but not perfect, score from a student could help that student stand out if their school had a low average score.
The reversal was disappointing to advocates of the test-optional approach who point out that wealthier families can afford to hire private tutors who know the best ways to get a high score.
Harry Feder, executive director of the advocacy organization FairTest, said to get a well-rounded class, college admissions offices should look to other metrics besides an SAT or ACT score.
“Thoughtful admissions departments who are not beholden to average SAT scores understand that to give kids an opportunity, to produce a multitalented class, a three-hour test is not a good metric,” Feder said.
Some schools, including California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and those in the University of California system, do not allow applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores.
In Minnesota, a few small colleges like Bethany Lutheran College and Martin Luther College still require an SAT or ACT score in admissions, according to their admission websites. But others are largely remaining test-optional, saying they use a holistic approach to admissions, where factors other than a student’s grades and test scores are considered.
Hamline University and Carleton College have committed long-term to being test-optional. The University of Minnesota is test-optional but has not committed to the policy long-term. Nearly 50% of applicants to the University of Minnesota did not submit an SAT or ACT score with their application.
“The University of Minnesota considers an ACT or SAT test score as part of the undergraduate admissions holistic review process if a student chooses to include a test score with their application,” Robert McMaster, the U’s dean of undergraduate education, said in a statement.
Still, students applying to test-optional Minnesota schools may not want to skip the SAT or ACT altogether because scores are still used in other ways. Winona State University uses SAT and ACT scores for class placement and some scholarships. Hamline also considers SAT and ACT scores when awarding some scholarships.
The College Board, which administers the SAT, noted test scores may demonstrate a student’s strengths and raise their visibility: “The SAT allows students — regardless of where they go to high school — to be seen by colleges and scholarship providers.”
Tests as barriers or helpful predictors?
Dartmouth said its internal study showed high test scores mirrored first-year student success more than GPA or other factors did. The president said that data, along with robust financial aid, will help recruit “the broadest and most talented student body possible.”
But Feder said Dartmouth’s testing requirement will have the opposite effect on applications because the tests present another barrier.
“It completely ignores that if you require the SAT, more kids won’t bother applying to Dartmouth, so they won’t get the disadvantaged students who would’ve applied without it,” Feder said.
Art Rodriguez, dean of admissions and financial aid at Carleton, said while colleges like his are satisfied with ditching SAT/ACT requirements in admissions, other colleges are still attached to those tests and may decide to bring them back.
“It’ll be interesting to see how each individual institution determines what’s the best practice for them based on the analysis that they’re able to conduct around student success,” Rodriguez said.
Jack O’Connor is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
