US college enrolment varies substantially by income and race. In 2016, 83% of students from high-income families enrolled in college immediately after graduating from high school, compared to only 67% of students from low-income families (McFarland 2018). Over 70% of white high-school graduates immediately enrol in college, compared to 56% of black high-school graduates. When low-income and underrepresented minority students enrol in college, they are disproportionately likely to do so at colleges with relatively low graduation rates and expected earnings, such as two-year community colleges. One explanation of such disparities comes from complexities in the transition to college, which disproportionately impact students who lack the resources or guidance to navigate college processes as effectively as their more advantaged peers (Page and Scott-Clayton 2016).
College entrance exams such as the SAT and ACT are one source of complexity. Some students do not take such exams at all, due to underestimation of their own college readiness, financial or psychological costs, or poor information about the exams’ role in admissions. States mandating such exams as part of accountability systems have not only increased exam-taking rates but have meaningfully improved their students’ four-year college enrolment rates and the selectivity of colleges chosen, particularly for underrepresented minoritystudents (Klasik 2013, Hurwitz et al. 2015, Goodman 2016, Hyman 2017). This research suggests both that some students underestimate their college readiness and that relatively small costs can dissuade such students from taking college entrance exams.
Although much has been written about the impact of taking a college entrance exam for the first time, we know little about students’ decisions to retake such exams. This research uses data on over 10 million SAT takers from the high school classes of 2006-2014, both to document predictors of retaking, and, more importantly, to provide the first causal estimates of the impact of retaking on college enrolment (Goodman et al. 2018).
The authors first show that that nearly half of SAT takers never retake the exam. Those who do not retake appear at a competitive disadvantage, given that retaking is strongly incentivised by current admissions practices of US colleges. Nearly 75% of four-year colleges that use SAT scores in the admissions process publicly claim to consider only a student’s maximum score. For most colleges, retaking can only improve students’ chances of being admitted by making their applications more competitive.
In terms of predictors of retaking, retake rates increase with income, but are also higher for low-income students who use waivers that render retakes free, suggesting that financial costs may deter some students from retaking. Female students are three percentage points more likely to retake than male students, and Asian-American students are 12 percentage points more likely to retake than white students. Underrepresented minority students are nine percentage points less likely to retake than white students, a gap only partly explained by income differences between those two groups. Students who take their first exam at an earlier date are more likely to retake, in part because they have more opportunities to do so.
The authors then estimate the causal impact of retaking on admissions-relevant test scores and college enrolment.
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