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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives call upon the public
universities in Illinois | ||||||
| 4 | to study the usefulness and fairness of standardized tests in | ||||||
| 5 | their
admission processes; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, The ultimate goal of analyzing the use of | ||||||
| 7 | standardized testing in higher
education is to move to a | ||||||
| 8 | test-optional admittance process; and
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| 9 | WHEREAS, There are clear benefits to standardized testing | ||||||
| 10 | merely being an optional
step in the admission process, one of | ||||||
| 11 | which is increased diversity; low income students
typically | ||||||
| 12 | score lower than their more affluent peers, putting them at a | ||||||
| 13 | disadvantage in the
admissions process; in 2016, the average | ||||||
| 14 | ACT composite score for a high-income
student was 23.6, while | ||||||
| 15 | the average composite score for low income students was 19.5; | ||||||
| 16 | and
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| 17 | WHEREAS, After the University of Chicago made the decision | ||||||
| 18 | to go test-optional, it reported record enrollments of | ||||||
| 19 | first-generation, low-income, and rural
students; and | ||||||
| 20 | WHEREAS, Public universities in Illinois making the choice | ||||||
| 21 | to go test-optional would not
be unique; currently, one in | ||||||
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| 1 | four institutions of higher education no longer requires a
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| 2 | standardized test score for admittance, and, in the last year | ||||||
| 3 | alone, 41 schools have
eliminated their standardized testing | ||||||
| 4 | requirement; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, A university moving to a test-optional admittance | ||||||
| 6 | process is not at all
synonymous with a university abandoning | ||||||
| 7 | its prestige, as the standards for admittance
would simply be | ||||||
| 8 | shifted to the students' GPA, extracurricular activities, and | ||||||
| 9 | references; a standardized test is not the only way to measure | ||||||
| 10 | a student's potential; the choice to
eliminate mandatory | ||||||
| 11 | standardized testing from admittance processes can lead to a
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| 12 | larger applicant pool for universities, thus creating a | ||||||
| 13 | stronger student body; and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, The test-optional switch will be
extremely | ||||||
| 15 | beneficial to the low-income students of Illinois who have | ||||||
| 16 | hopes of attending one
of the State's exceptional public | ||||||
| 17 | universities; therefore, be it
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| 18 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 19 | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 20 | we urge the public universities in Illinois to examine the use | ||||||
| 21 | of standardized testing in their admissions processes; and be | ||||||
| 22 | it further
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| 1 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 2 | delivered to all the public universities in Illinois.
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