Standards (1890-1920)
Admission by Certificate
The creation of the College Entrance Examination Board was, in part, a response to the popularity of the certificate system.
Harold Wechsler
"Eastern Standard Time: High School-College Collaboration and Admission to College, 1880-1930"
While testing was the primary form of admissions to higher education institutions throughout the nineteenth century, admission by certificate was an alternative form of admissions developed after the Civil War. Admission by certificate started in 1870 by the University of Michigan and other state universities. It became popular at the midwestern land-grant colleges and state universities.
These institutions adopted a system of high school accreditation whereby college preparatory work in certified high schools was accepted as an adequate basis for collegiate admission. University inspectors visited high schools and determined whether or not the curriculum was acceptable for certification.
Supporters of admission by certification believed that the system would set academic standards and would allow for easy recruitment of students. Critics of the admission by certification system noted the infrequency of inspections after 1880 and the eventual omission of university faculty from the inspection process.
Admission by certificate became a major method of college admissions by 1900, as nearly 200 institutions had adopted the admission by certificate plan.
In part, the formation of the College Entrance Examination Board was a response to the success of admission by certificate. It was also a way for elite institutions, such as Harvard and Yale, simultaneously to constrict the market share of students held by institutions adopting the admission by certificate plan and to expand their own market share of students to regions outside of the Northeast.
