In your replies to at least two peers, extend the discussion by offering an example to counter the ideas of another or to provide a fresh perspective on the conclusions your peers have drawn. 

Respond 2 classmates discussion

speak in first person. Speak as you are talking to each classmate directly

Denita Response

The institutional context is a set of rules, regulations, and policies that illustrate an institution’s overall function. Internal and external stakeholders will value these terms as the illustration of representation for the college or university in which services will be provided to students for a successful higher education career. Given the ever-changing demands of increasing competitiveness within society, educational facilities will have to adjust to the needs of changes to be successful for the world changes.

Such changes as institutions implemented test option policies for SAT and ACT due to the COVID-19 worldwide health pandemic. Some of these testing policies were already in place before the pandemic, but the crisis placed pressure on institutions to quickly adjust their policies to accommodate the need for change. This evolution of change stems from the institution’s flexibility to place more value on a student’s academic success of activates than on test scores for admissions (Jaschik, 2021). Eliminating testing requirements made it easier for students to get accepted into colleges, and the university became a more diverse community. Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, announced their new testing policy stating “students have the option to withhold testing as part of their application and decide for themselves whether they would like their standardized test scores to be used towards their admission candidacy” (ColoradoCollege.edu).  The college’s admissions department at CC has made impactful changes and decisions to admit students without test scores. Ensuring and providing all students that are admitted the proper academic support to sustain enrollment and graduate on time. 

                 These test-optional policies that colleges and universities have established enable students to have the option of omitting their testing scores in their admission applications. Non-submitters of testing results are more likely to be first-generation college students, minority students, women, Pell Grant recipients, and students with learning disabilities (dyslexia.yale.edu). The admissions department will consider these students and other students as talented students that will work to college-level standards to build a student body that will be retained until graduation. Whichever way institutions choose to re-examine their testing policy, students will have more choices in their school options, and institutions will see increased diversity and various academic abilities for college-level work. Institutions will start to comprehend that not solely relying on test scores will enhance equity and diversity in seeking to increase their enrollment status results. 

Reference

s:

· Jaschik, Scott (2021). ACT Admits That Test-Optional Admissions Isn’t Going Away. (Inside Higher Ed.) (

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2021/03/01/act-admits-test-optional-admissions-isnt-going-away

)

· Colorado College – Test Optional Policy (

https://www.coloradocollege.edu/admission/for-students/admission-requirements/admission-test-optional.html

)

· The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity – Study: Optional Standardized Testing Policies in American Colleges and University Admissions (

https://dyslexia.yale.edu/study-optional-standardized-testing/

)

Jaime Response

What makes an institution run? Proper leadership, students, programs, faculty and staff, revenue and federal aid to name a few. If one of these is declining or in need of support, then it can affect many of the other areas mentioned. At the core of these is the institutions mission, value and goals. These set the process in motion and changes need to circle back to these guidelines to assure they are staying within these values.

One of the biggest challenges came with the admissions scandal that occurred. This involved a college consulted company bribing college coaches and testing proctors to get children from wealthy families into well-known institutions.  The admissions process has been questioned in the past and calls for change have occurred system-wide. In fact, Lloyd Thacker, the former head of the Education Conservancy, tried to take this on. In his role, he published a book that broke down the hysteria students felt when it came to the college recruitment process and the pressures these applicants felt and how he would change this process while questioning tactics like standardized tests and having higher ranking schools in the forefront-something that administrators anonymously wished would disappear (Hoover, 2019). The pressure that students feel to play the right sports, attend the right schools and have just the right items checked off to be accepted gets piled on a student. The pressure that institutions put on a student to reach these goals and achieve the right standards to be admitted to the best school all before the student turns eighteen burns them out before life started. Thacker was asked at a panel how he would change the process and he said it should not be about the name of the institution on a student’s degree but the engagement and experience that student has that should bear weight and many counselors and admissions thanked him as he put the thoughts in their head for change (Hoover, 2019). Unfortunately, while it was met with great response, no one would take it on and were scared to battle this higher education hierarchy that has been created. While this is a bigger picture than one institution’s context and mission, it would just take one of the bigger schools to challenge these policies to change their mission and to start the conversation for others to join. This conversation would have to start with the admissions department, and working hand and hand with Department of Student Affairs, the President’s Office and up to the Board of Trustees. Changing how a school handles their admissions process is an institution’s choice and part of their mission and complex. This is institution to institution. However, to change the process nationwide, it would take a movement. Something that Thatcher started and tried to do, and had mild success in, but it needs to continue and be on a broader scale

Reference

Hoover, E. (2019, May). An idealist set out to change college admissions. It was a long, lonely quest. In

The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/an-idealist-set-out-to-change-college-admissions-it-was-a-long-lonely-quest/