Last March I wrote a blog post titled “Test-optional isn’t going to last.” In that post, I argue

Test-optional colleges are willing to ignore test scores and look at the whole package—grades, essays, recommendations, demonstrated interest, and interviews. They also provide testing data that is incomplete and therefore not useful. So why don’t they just get rid of testing altogether? Why not move from test-optional to test-blind? There’s no reason for the tests!

This week, Northern Illinois University announced that they’re doing just that, going test-blind for undergraduate admissions and honors consideration. The school feels strongly that a student’s high school GPA is a much better indicator of potential, and that “once we know a high school student’s GPA, one standardized test score is irrelevant.”

So is this the end of admissions testing? No. At least not yet. But it may be the beginning of the end. Remember that it’s only in the past few years that test-optional has really been widely accepted. Test-blind has a way to go. However, getting rid of national standardized tests—because there’s no need to keep them—may take effect more quickly than test-optional did.

One of the reasons getting rid of testing is risky is because US News and World Report uses test scores as a factor in determining a school’s rank. Test-blind schools aren’t included in US News’s lists. That’s something a lot of universities need—the reputation and advertising that comes with that rank. Northern Illinois is lumped into the “#293-#381 in National Universities” ranking, and their enrollment decreased by almost a third over the past 10 years. So losing the ranking may not be a big risk for them. But it probably is to most of the schools in the top 200.

That’s why the test-blind movement (if it is going to become a movement, and I believe it will) needs a champion. Test-optional got a huge boost in recognition and consideration when the University of Chicago went test optional. Test-blind could benefit from a big-name adopter as well. Any of the US News top 10 national universities (Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, M.I.T., Yale, Stanford, U. Chicago, U. Penn, Northwestern, and Duke) could lose that rank and still be considered a well-know, elite university. They don’t need the ranking, and they might do well to be considered an innovator who is willing to lead into the next phase of college admissions. How about it, Ivy League? Go ahead and do away with the tests!

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