Many more students, especially the children of well-to-do parents, are getting extra time to take the SAT, reported the Wall Street Journal in May.

As part of the Varsity Blues scandal, a crooked consultant got his clients’ kids extra time and a separate room for test-taking to make it easy to inflate their SAT scores.

Requests for more time on the SAT doubled in five years, from 80,000 in 2010-11 to 160,000 in 2015–16, writes Greg Toppo in Education Next. Some say the fairest solution is to let everyone have unlimited time to complete the test.

Some say timed tests favor students who are quick over those who are thoughtful. Others say college students must be able to handle time pressures.

“The college environment is one where you don’t get unlimited time to do stuff,” said Gregory Cizek, a professor of educational measurement and evaluation at the University of North Carolina School of Education. “Your term paper is due by the end of next week. You’re going to have a quiz in class. You’re going to have to stand and give a group report or discussion.”

Ohio State University law professor Ruth Colker says tests should not be “speeded” (timed) unless it’s essential for validity. She favors untimed tests that serve all students, writes Toppo. “Think of an unspeeded SAT, then, as offering all test-takers the cognitive version of curb cuts, automatic doors, or closed captioning — designs that are especially beneficial to users with disabilities but that end up serving many others as well.

Computer-adaptive tests could make the debate irrelevant, notes Toppo.

Instead of requiring all students to sit for a defined number of questions over a set time, these tests pose questions in a progressively customized sequence, quickly generating a probability that the user knows the required material.

. . . about 80 percent of professional licensure certification is now adaptive, including tests for medical and legal licenses and for other professions such as real estate.

Students applying to some New England colleges may submit performance assessments, such as videos, lab reports or research papers, along with traditional materials as part of a Reimagining College Access pilot.

The idea is to show a broader picture of the applicant and “foster increased equity and inclusion.” I suspect high grades and test scores will correlate with strong performance “artifacts.”