Pennsylvania Officials Consider State Test For Automatic College Admission
HARRISBURG, Pa.
The majority of Pennsylvania's high school students who score well on the state's basic-skills test would be guaranteed admission into state colleges under a plan being considered here.
The new concept is included in the State System of Higher Education's strategic planning initiative.
The proposal will go through a process of review and could be adopted as soon as January, at the next meeting of the system's Board of Governors.
"The idea behind the measure is to encourage the students that are qualified to attend Pennsylvania's colleges without going through an arduous application process," says Kenneth Marshall, a spokesman for the system's board. "If they take the right courses and score well on the test, they know they can go to college in our state."
The educators on the committee have not determined which classes would be required under the plan or what score would be necessary to gain automatic admission.
But Marshall says the classes would not be outside the average student's curriculum.
The policy would include Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester state universities.
It would not apply to Penn State, The University of Pittsburgh, Temple or Lincoln universities, which receive state money but are in a different category of public universities.
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