By Emily Sullivan

As part of outreach programs to promote higher rates of college application, the Department of Education announced last week that New York City will begin to offer the SAT free to all public high school juniors. Within the city, the exam will now be administered weekdays during school hours instead of Saturday mornings, and will no longer cost a staggering $54.50 per session.

School Chancellor Carmen Farina, who announced the initiative, suggested that eradicating as many barriers as possible might allow students who otherwise would not have signed up for the exam more resources. “The opportunity to go to college should never be decided by students’ backgrounds or ZIP codes,” Ms. Farina said in her announcement. “I only became the first person in my family to go to college because a teacher let me know it was an option and supported me through the application and enrollment process so I could follow my dreams of becoming a teacher.”

With this initiative, New York City joins several other efforts throughout the U.S. to increase the number of high school students participating in college entrance examinations. In order to fulfill their high school testing requirements, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Kentucky public high school juniors must take the ACT. Just last August, Connecticut announced an outreach initiative that mandates the SAT for all high school juniors. Students in the state still had to pay out of pocket for the exam, which replaced an existing standardized exam. The aim of this initiative was largely to reduce the number of exams students were taking rather than expanding access.

According to the Department of Education, over 80 percent of Connecticut high school students have taken the SAT by the end of their senior year, compared to only 56 percent of New York City high school students. Taking the test during regular school hours, free of cost, is expected to make a huge difference in the amount of New York City students taking the SAT, according to educators.

University of Virginia professor Benjamin Castleman noted that participation tends to be higher when it is the standard. “For some families, maybe from better educated or more affluent backgrounds, the SAT or ACT really is a default; you know you’re going to do it,” Castleman said. “For those who are less educated, the SAT may not be part of the default practice. Applying to college may not be the default practice. By making it universal, you make it something that every student who shows up on that day is going to take.”

Students will not be required to take the exam, but its new cost and convenience may promote the SAT to a standard part of the New York City educational landscape. The SAT will not be administered under recent initiative’s terms until the spring of 2017 and is estimated to cost New York City $1.8 million annually. By allowing students more accessibility to college applications, the city is investing in New Yorkers’ futures. The SAT and other “aptitude” tests, though increasingly criticized for their lack of focus on students’ demonstrated academic abilities through grades or extracurriculars, are still required on the applications of the majority of universities throughout the U.S.

In a video posted by the White House to Facebook, President Obama referenced a desire to rethink the current emphasis placed on standardized testing. “I hear from parents who worry about too much testing,” he noted, “and from teachers who feel so much pressure to teach to the test that it takes out all the joy out of teaching and learning for both them and the students. I want to fix that.”

Though the majority of current college students would agree that standardized tests and college application process were stressful processes, initiatives such as this one should be applauded until education develops a more inclusive and representative way of assessing students. Removing restrictive barriers to higher education is essential in increasing the number of college applicants throughout New York City.

Emily Sullivan, FCRH ’17, is a psychology major from Wall, New Jersey.