Dartmouth College announced Monday that beginning next year, prospective students must submit standardized test scores with their applications. The school, like many others around the country, made the test optional in 2020. Today, Dartmouth cited research stating that SAT and ACT scores are a “key method” for the school to identify students who will succeed.

It’s been a tricky couple of years for the organizations that administer those tests. Back in 2020, the ACT became really hard to give. 

“Because one, schools were just closed,” said Janet Godwin, the CEO of ACT, the nonprofit that administers the test. “And then when schools were open, there was the social distancing.”

Which meant you couldn’t fit as many high schoolers into a cafeteria to take the test. ACT felt that. Its annual revenue dropped from $302 million in 2019 to $241 million in 2020. 

But Godwin said it’s bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels. And that’s partly because colleges still want to see the scores to help determine scholarships or eligibility for certain programs. 

“A school may be test-optional for general admissions but still have a score requirement for programs like nursing or engineering,” Godwin said.

Also, standardized testing is the established practice at a lot of school districts. And Brookings Institution fellow Katharine Meyer said many still build time into the day for students to take the SAT and ACT — and foot the bill for the tests. 

“So there’s still a lot of students taking these exams. And then students are making the decision about which institutions to send them to,” said Meyer.

The testing industry is also bringing in revenue by selling tools to colleges that will give a student’s test score some context, Meyer said.

“They sort of guide an admissions officer through, ‘This is a student’s test score. And here’s how you should consider that given the environment they grew up in,’” Meyer said. “This may be a slightly lower SAT score, but it’s the best score that anybody from their high school has gotten in the past couple of years.”

Meanwhile, going test-optional has been hard for institutions, said independent education consultant Justin Cohen.

“Like it or not, like, a single test score is a much easier thing to, like, put on a form and calibrate then all of these other ephemeral factors, including grade point average and student activities and interviews,” Cohen said.

And that’s why more colleges may be going back to requiring the test scores they know, he said.