From the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

Here's your host, Scott Bertram.

Hello again, everybody, and welcome in to another edition of The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour.

On this episode, we'll talk with Paul Ray from Hillsdale's History Department about standardized testing

and why some colleges are moving away from it. Hans von Spakovsky from the Heritage Foundation

on the possibility of mail-in voting.

Dan Copeland from Hillsdale's Education Department will tell us all about a new Hillsdale

online course. And Matt Guy Tato from Hillsdale's History Department will tell us what it's like

to be a Hillsdale professor after having graduated from Hillsdale College. First, we're joined by

Dr. Paul Ray, Professor of History,

and Charles O. Lee and Louise Kaylee chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College. Dr. Ray,

thanks for joining us. It's a pleasure to be with you. You've written two recent pieces that

listeners can find at ricochet.com on standardized testing at colleges. Tell us what's happened at the

University of California system and elsewhere too regarding standardized testing. These tests

have been shown to be very good predictors of success in college, not perfect predictors. They measure intelligence,

but they also measure what people call aptitude, which has something to do with acquired knowledge.

I mean, you can be very intelligent and be illiterate and unable to read and you're not going to do well

in college if you are. So these tests have been very useful. Now, universities have always

been willing in special cases to accept people who don't quite fit the standardized testing profile.

Some people don't do well on standardized testing, but you have other indications that they are really terrific.

Grades, letters from teachers, they were taking college courses on the side while they were – there's a lot of things to look at.

But these tests were and are exceedingly useful, but they are embarrassing now.

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