WSJ latest comments on SAT Writing

xiggi · December 8, 2005, 2:29pm

People might be interested in this article that came out in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

Many Colleges Ignore New SAT Writing Test — Essay May Not Predict Academic Success, Critics Say; When the Results Can Help
By Charles Forelle
7 December 2005
The Wall Street Journal
(Copyright (c) 2005, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Here are a few excerpts of the article:

The University of Chicago, Ohio State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions say scores on the writing test won’t figure into their admissions decisions this year. “We don’t know what they mean,” says Ted O’Neill, Chicago’s dean of admissions. “We don’t know what they predict.” 

“We are using it with a really skeptical eye,” says Jess Lord, dean of admission and financial aid at Haverford College in Haverford, Pa. Mr. Lord says his office will consider the writing score but won’t give it much weight if it’s inconsistent with the rest of a student’s application. 

In a survey of 374 colleges conducted this summer by test-prep outfit Kaplan Inc., 47% said they were discounting the SAT writing section entirely. Twenty-two percent said they were assigning it less weight than the longstanding sections – math and verbal. 

Stephen Farmer, director of admission at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says his school will use the SAT writing score “sparingly if at all” in the first year but will keep the scores on file to see for future years whether they correlate well with academic performance. Still, he said admissions officers weren’t entirely disregarding it. 

Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., said she has concerns because the new test “did not come from the grass roots,” and appeared rather to be a “business decision” to keep University of California applicants in the test-taking pool. Ms. Jones says she isn’t confident in the grading system, which instructs graders to disregard factual errors in almost all circumstances. Instead, the emphasis is on rating language usage, structure and logical flow. 

Some schools, however, are openly embracing the new test. “We are using it,” says John Blackburn, dean of admissions at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He says his school has long relied on the supplemental SAT subject test for writing, on which the new SAT section is modeled. 

At Ohio State University in Columbus, SAT writing scores won’t be considered at least until 2008, said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions. Ohio State will analyze the scores for predictive value before deciding whether to use them.

Many colleges aren’t using the new writing section of the SAT when
assessing student applications this fall. A look at how some schools view
the section:

SCHOOL: College of the Holy Cross
LOCATION: Worcester, Mass.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: No. Dropped standardized testing requirement entirely this year, in part over “hysteria” surrounding writing test.

SCHOOL: Dartmouth College
LOCATION: Hanover, N.H.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Yes, but “not weighing it very heavily” until more research is done.

SCHOOL: Harvard University
LOCATION: Cambridge, Mass.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Yes. Admissions dean William Fitzsimmons hopes test will spur more writing instruction in high school. Harvard will be sensitive" to the fact that some students have less access to writing prep courses.

SCHOOL: Haverford College
LOCATION: Haverford, Pa.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Only on a “case by case” basis. Admissions dean says he is skeptical of the scoring.

SCHOOL: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
LOCATION: Cambridge, Mass.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: No. MIT says it needs more data and more time to study them; dean is “not confident” in scoring system.

SCHOOL: Ohio State University
LOCATION: Columbus, Ohio
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: No. Not until 2008 at the earliest. Would like to use it if validated by research.

SCHOOL: Stanford University
LOCATION: Stanford, Calif.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Yes. “I’m confident about the research that went into it,” says admissions dean Richard Shaw.

SCHOOL: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
LOCATION: Chapel Hill, N.C.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Yes, but “sparingly” until “we know what this test predicts,” says admissions dean.

SCHOOL: University of Virginia
LOCATION: Charlottesville, Va.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Yes. The more information the better, says admissions dean.

SCHOOL: University of Wisconsin-Madison
LOCATION: Madison, Wis.
USING THE WRITING SECTION?: Yes – either SAT or ACT with writing is required. Admissions director says “writing is a critical skill.”

Note: A detailed list of schools from Kaplan Inc.'s survey is online at <a href=“http://www.kaptest.com/SATsurvey[/url]”>www.kaptest.com/SATsurvey</a>

driver · December 8, 2005, 3:19pm

Your post sent me out to the recycling bin…I had missed that article. I thought the one below it–“Dodging the Hazards of Post-College Life: Financial Strategies for New Graduates” looked interesting as well. In case any of you are also running out to the recycle bin, it’s in the fourth --Personal Journal–section. Gotta start paying more attention to that.

nunofyurbeesknees · December 8, 2005, 9:34pm

Thanks for the link, Xiggi. I did read it in the Wall Street Journal but have no idea how to do the cut and paste like you do. I had a suspicion that many schools would not look at the writing part for awhile.

carolyn · December 8, 2005, 9:42pm

I have thought about this quite a bit, and I’m not convinced that even schools who say they won’t use it will simply “ignore” the writing section. Think about it: US News will use the “new” SAT scores for compiling rankings next year. That means US News will use the “new” writing score.

Does anyone seriously believe that colleges seeking to maintain or climb up the rankings are NOT going to at least glance at those writing scores to make sure they won’t screw up their US News ranking?

Schools may be saying they “won’t consider them,” but I’ll bet my bottom dollar most will still be paying attention to make sure their “new” SAT medians are comparable to their “old” SAT medians.

Zuma · December 8, 2005, 11:02pm

Right you are.

idad · December 8, 2005, 11:17pm

If Ted O’Neill says they won’t be using it, then they won’t. They will rely on their own essays. My guess is, however, that if students can impress the Chicago admissions folks withe their essays, their writing scores will likely be quite high as well.

Spetsnaz_Op · December 8, 2005, 11:57pm

Meh…I don’t have a problem with the essay section. However I believe they should have kept the old structure of 1600 points and just attached the essay. Meaning you could get a 1400 w/ 8 on the essay instead of getting say a 2000. Such arguments are admittedly minor though.

xiggi · December 9, 2005, 1:34am

“Think about it: US News will use the “new” SAT scores for compiling rankings next year.”

I’ll bet you a trip to Tijuana that USNews won’t be using a 2400 scale next year. Of course, I am being devious here and I should not bet when it’s taking advantage of someone. The rankings will be based on last year’s class … a class where few schools could have made the “new” SAT mandatory.

I’ll stick my neck out until August 2007, as I believe that there is a 75 to 90% chance for the standard to stay at 1600. By 2008, we may see a 1600 + 800 in separate columns. If things settle down, we may see a full 2400 scale by 2010 or well after you’ll have stopped worrying about USNews College Edition -at least as a parent. :)

PS How much is that bottom dollar worth?

A.S.A.P · December 9, 2005, 4:40pm

Hey, where’s the University of California on the Kaplan list!

Did they just not answer the survey?

over30 · December 9, 2005, 7:13pm

Am I missing something here? Is the writing section which was added to the SAT completely different from the old SAT II Writing? A lot of colleges required that old test, so why don’t they now know what to do with it?

ohio_mom · December 9, 2005, 7:34pm

over30 -
IMO, the essay was problematic on the SAT II - I can’t imagine that it will be less so with more tests to score.

A.S.A.P · December 9, 2005, 8:07pm

Apparently it is a different test, with essays that were scored differently. Otherwise the CB would not be saying that the test had not been normed, which they said last fall.

over30 · December 9, 2005, 10:27pm

Thanks. I’ve never been a big fan of the 20 minute essay. Is the multiple choice different?

Mombot · December 10, 2005, 1:00am

The best writing is heavily edited. This test won’t measure writing ability–it will measure salemanship. A student that can slam a coherent sales pitch together in 20 minutes will be at an advantage. Supposedly the graders are not allowed to consider whether a writer’s argument is factually correct; they are supposed to evaluate it on fluency and flow.

itstoomuch · December 10, 2005, 2:58am

on one of those rags said the writing test shows how well some can write in 20 minutes.

For me, 20 minutes only gets me to the first word and the ending period. The tinking, rinking, and errating in the middle that gets me confused.

WSJ latest comments on SAT Writing

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