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Articles: Expert Advice
Top Forums
Commentary: Time to Ditch the SAT
Dave_Berry
CC Admissions Expert Posts: 2,676 Senior Member
"We need an education system that teaches students to be thinkers, not standardized test takers." ...
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2018-04-13/commentary-time-to-ditch-the-sat
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2018-04-13/commentary-time-to-ditch-the-sat
Replies to: Commentary: Time to Ditch the SAT
Neuroscience is moving towards a consolidated measurement of brain processing power - call it a "brain processing score" - based on physical correlates like brain morphology, glucose uptake rates and fMRI measures of neurobiological pathways. It will be correlated with all the sorts of important outcomes we expect from able and educated people. Moreover, it cannot be changed by the test taker any more than she could change her natural eye color. So, there will be no need to worry about "privileged' kids getting unfair advantages, as in SAT and ACT scoring today.
We are probably not more than 10 or 15 years away from this. A brain processing score, when coupled with demonstrated achievement in prior academic endeavors, will hopefully revolutionize the college admissions process. Well, at least some of us can dream....
Top schools are not going to get rid of them unless there is a better alternative.
In the end, even though it was painful for them, it'll be a good thing that these kids are spread out across the country.
If you are a poor kid, without access to the educational opportunities, the carefully curated ECs, the consultants, the sports camps and coaches in the desirable niche sport, the "helping hands" throughout your life, etc., you just might embrace the possibility that you possess some exceptional attribute that circumstance has obscured from the view of the otherwise all-seeing college admissions officers.
Conversely, if you are a highly privileged aspirant, with all the access outlined above, such a score would do little to enhance your profile, and you just might fear the possibility that those same officers would discover a deficiency.
I always like to look at the now decades-long attempts (largely successful) to water down tests and inflate GPA through this sort of lens. It helps me understand what is really going on.
This sounds like the studies by the American Tobacco Institute that found no relationship between smoking and lung disease. How about a study from a neutral source?
Here's an interesting article! https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/nail-biting-standardized-testing-may-miss-mark-college-students "Former Dean of Admissions for Bates College William Hiss led the study which tracked the grades and graduation rates of students who submitted their test results against those who did not over several years.
Hiss’ data showed that there was a negligible difference in college performance between the two groups. Only .05 percent of a GPA point set “submitters” and “non-submitters” apart, and the difference in their graduation rates was just .6 percent.
There are about 850 test-optional colleges in the U.S., and the trend is growing slowly.
What should college admissions officers look for instead? Hiss says GPA matters the most."
Considering that hundreds of colleges are now test optional, including Middlebury, Skidmore, and Wesleyan, and those three and others are still cranking out successful adults, I agree that the time for the necessity of the SAT/ACT is coming to an end. Not that the College Board won't put up a fight!
@JenJenJenJen , you are free to read the study. It's fact based and they are pretty much telling you that AP Exams are better predictors than SATs. They administer both exams. It makes no sense for them to have a preference of one over another.
In places where the universities trust the consistency of high school courses and grading (e.g. Canada, at least within provinces), external standardized testing is not required. But US high schools are much less consistent in this respect, so many universities hesitate to going without any common measure (however flawed as they may see it) at all.
This is not our experience. SAT and SAT subject tests were taken without prep. AP exams on the other hand were considered in the curriculum, specifically in the wording of any quiz and test during the course. My students did not spend as much time reading for enjoyment in their later years of high school, but it was because they were reading text books, doing labs, playing sports, working and spending time with friends.
Moreover, why do we tend to see wider score ranges within classrooms and schools (and income deciles, for that matter), than across classrooms and schools (and incomes)? As I read somewhere, every classroom contains its own Massachusetts and Mississippi.
Seems to me that the SAT is actually measuring something real. And it's not preparation or curriculum or school quality, although any given score can of course be informed by an examination of those variables for the particular test taker.