The College Board has raised hackles again with a policy change. Called Score Choice, this program gives students the option to control which test scores get sent to schools. (This really isn’t a new policy; it’s a return to an earlier policy circa 1993-2002 when students could choose to send schools their best scores over several test sittings.)

Both sides of the standardized testing debate weigh in on this return to an earlier policy. Some say this element of control lowers student anxiety; the pro-testers want to see all the scores.

When I applied to college 25 years ago, the schools told me outright that they would use my best score from each piece of the test(s) to build the best composite; Bruce Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College tells the New York Times (“SAT Changes Policy, Opening Rift With Colleges“) that this is the current policy at Pomona.

For large institutions standardized tests are important measures in their mass situations. Small schools or schools with large admission staffs have the time and resources to evaluate students closely and individually.

My solution- why don’t schools communicate up-front- directly and clearly- how their admission office uses the SAT and ACT? It seems that much anxiety and debate could be diffused with more transparency. A lot of wheel spinning and misplaced energy seems to grow out of the fact that families and students don’t understand the meaning of each test at each school.

Tell students and families how the standardized test scores factor into admission decisions each school. Being informed- not given an illusory choice- gives families the ability to make proper judgments