The State Board of Education has voted unanimously to waive Idaho’s requirement that members of the high school Class of 2022 must take a college entrance exam in order to graduate this spring or summer.
Sherri Ybarra
Additionally, board member Sherri Ybarra, Superintendent of Public Instruction, is advocating for permanent removal of the requirement. That issue, a rule change proposed by the state board, is pending before the Idaho Legislature this session. Under the current rule, which was waived in 2020 and 2021 because of pandemic conditions, Idaho students must take either the Scholastic Assessment Test, better known as the SAT or the American College Test also known as the ACT. Most high school juniors take the SAT because a state contract provides that test to students for free.
Last June the State Board of Education dropped college entrance exams as a statewide requirement for state colleges and universities, and the required test has questionable value for assessing Idaho high school students’ college readiness relative to their peers across the nation because not all states require the tests to graduate so only motivated students who prepare for the tests actually take them.
