California, kill the SAT and ACT essay

Dave_Berry
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:32:08 +0000

"… The problem is that students’ scores on these exercises don’t indicate much about how they will perform in the classroom, which is what these tests are supposed to reveal. When the College Board redesigned the SAT and made the essay optional in 2016, it admitted as much: ‘While the College Board remains steadfast in its commitment to the importance of analytic writing for all students . . . one single essay historically has not contributed significantly to the overall predictive power of the exam.’

It is no surprise, then, that so few colleges require the SAT and ACT essays or that, even among those that do, there is little indication that any of them use the essay to determine whether to accept an applicant." …