In a revelation that should be surprising to no one, elite colleges are starting to acknowledge that standardized exams are predictive and have value. Dartmouth, a member of the storied Ivy League, recently announced that it will reinstate mandatory submission of the SAT and ACT exams for future classes.

The elite university denies the standard progressive criticism that the exams disadvantage the poor. Instead, Dartmouth argues that the absence of standardized exams made the task of identifying prepared low-income students much more difficult.