<p>According to Manning and Jackson 1984: “College Entrance Examinations.” In
Perspectives on Bias in Mental Testing:</p>
<p>“It is doubtful that any other kind of test or even any other body of test validation research approaches the number of studies in which college admissions tes scores are related to future academic performance. The studies have been REPEATED THOUSANDS OF TIMES, AND THE RESULTS CONSISTENTLY SUPPORT the conclusion that…the higher the test scores the more successful, on average, the students are in college and graduate study.”</p>
<p>The quote and reference above comes from The Affirmative Action Hoax. The data that is quoted involves the SATs before renorming in the mid 90s. The new SATs are less meatier than the old version and in turn, recent data attempts to paint them as less accurate in their predictive powers. Here we have a study from the <a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2001/oct25art1.htm”>UC system</a> that states:</p>
<p>"The study, “UC and the SAT: Predictive Validity and Differential Impact of the SAT I and SAT II at the University of California,” examines the relationship between test scores and academic outcomes based on the records of nearly 78,000 first-time freshmen who entered the UC system over a four-year period.</p>
<p>UC has required freshman applicants to submit both SAT I (or ACT) scores and SAT II scores since 1968. As a result, UC has an extensive database on the two tests and is uniquely positioned to analyze their relative ability to predict college success.</p>
<p>Among the study’s findings:</p>
<pre><code>* The SAT II achievement tests are a consistently stronger predictor of UC freshman grades than the SAT I. Scores from the SAT I add very little, if anything, to the prediction of UC first-year grades once high school grades and SAT II scores are taken into account.
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When schools are ranked using the state’s Academic Performance Index (API), the SAT II tests remain a better predictor than the SAT I across all schools.
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SAT I scores are more sensitive to students’ socioeconomic background than are SAT II scores. After controlling for socioeconomic background, the power of the SAT I to predict UC freshman grades is substantially diminished, while the predictive power of the SAT II remains strong.
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Eliminating the SAT I in favor of the SAT II achievement tests likely would have little effect on the ethnic composition of students admitted to UC, since students from different ethnic groups perform about the same on the SAT II as they do on the SAT I, with only minor differences."
</code></pre>
<p>And finally, for me, another study done by Morrison at the University of Minnesota that states:</p>
<p>“the widely used SAT test is a valid predictor of success in college. Using the technique of meta-analysis, the researchers summarized previous research on how well the SAT predicts performance in college. The team found the SAT predicts GPA during freshman year and later years in college, as well as study habits, persistence and degree attainment. SAT scores also were related to scores on state nursing board exams; therefore, said the researchers, the SAT predicts success in entering the nursing profession. The purpose of this research is to determine the predictors of success on teacher certification exams.”</p>
<p>It is clear, if one cares to delve into the evidence and not simply parrot PC bilge, that the evidence for the SATs as being intelligence tests (pre-renorming) and highly predictive for college success is mountainous. It is beyond dispute save for a few dinosaur apologists that refuse to let it go. There are reasons why places want to do away with standardized testing. It certainly is not because the tests give bad data.</p>