Should Colleges Do Admissions Without Standardized Tests? (forbes.com) 156
America's not-for-profit College Board is a membership organization of 6,000 educational institutions that creates and administers tests used by college admissions offices. But it "operates as a near monopoly" with tests "which have a stranglehold on their student-customers...an organization under serious strain, run by an elitist, tone-deaf chief executive," according to a new article shared by long-term Slashdot reader theodp:
The College Board's core product, the SAT, has set the standard for college admissions for more than five decades and fuels $1+ billion in annual revenue. In How The SAT Failed America, Forbes' Susan Adams takes a look at the College Board's billion-dollar testing monopoly and questions whether the great-granddaddy of standardized tests will survive...
Adams notes that 2020 and fallout from the Board's inability to administer its tests safely and efficiently during the pandemic may be the undoing of the seemingly invincible cash machine. Since March, 500+ colleges — including every Ivy League school — have joined the growing 'test optional' movement. And on top of widely-reported technical problems with virtual AP exams in the spring, just-disclosed 2020 College Board AP data reveals that decreases in exam participation were seen in nearly every course.
"They're going to learn how to do admissions without the tests," warns the head of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The article notes that "All told, more than 1,600 four-year schools will not require scores for admission in 2021, and a growing number are becoming 'test blind,' meaning they won't consider scores at all..."
And there's also privacy concerns: College Board "leases" student data, including ethnicity, religion, gender and their parents' educational backgrounds, to colleges and other third parties. The practice initiates an onslaught of promotional mailings and brochures that students' families must endure in the years leading up to admission. (Late last year, a class action suit was filed in federal court in Illinois, claiming the College Board is violating the state's child privacy laws and using deceptive practices to enrich itself. College Board points out that a similar suit was dismissed several years ago.)
The PSAT and SAT exams are loss leaders, in a sense, steering students to other opportunities on which College Board can cash in.
Adams notes that 2020 and fallout from the Board's inability to administer its tests safely and efficiently during the pandemic may be the undoing of the seemingly invincible cash machine. Since March, 500+ colleges — including every Ivy League school — have joined the growing 'test optional' movement. And on top of widely-reported technical problems with virtual AP exams in the spring, just-disclosed 2020 College Board AP data reveals that decreases in exam participation were seen in nearly every course.
"They're going to learn how to do admissions without the tests," warns the head of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The article notes that "All told, more than 1,600 four-year schools will not require scores for admission in 2021, and a growing number are becoming 'test blind,' meaning they won't consider scores at all..."
And there's also privacy concerns: College Board "leases" student data, including ethnicity, religion, gender and their parents' educational backgrounds, to colleges and other third parties. The practice initiates an onslaught of promotional mailings and brochures that students' families must endure in the years leading up to admission. (Late last year, a class action suit was filed in federal court in Illinois, claiming the College Board is violating the state's child privacy laws and using deceptive practices to enrich itself. College Board points out that a similar suit was dismissed several years ago.)
The PSAT and SAT exams are loss leaders, in a sense, steering students to other opportunities on which College Board can cash in.
3 words: kaplan sat prep (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the problem with standardized tests. They are companies willing to train students on how to do well on the test. The SAT wouldn't be that bad, if students took it without prep, Yes their scores would be lower, however they be more reflective of the students ability. However now that any student with parents with money, or is willing to sacrifice to to pay for such prep, will get tricks to improve your score on the test.
Re:3 words: kaplan sat prep (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah.. it would almost be better if the test had a random format and was about anything at random every year. Then people couldn't prep for it. The only grade that matters being how it compared to others that took it.
If the test tended to favor others this time, retake it and maybe it'll favor you this time.
Re:3 words: kaplan sat prep (Score:5, Insightful)
No one is mentioning that the SAT lets the colleges detect grade inflation at the high schools. This is something the SAT is able to normalize since they have the SAT scores for the entire student body. This data can be used to adjust GPAs. All A's are not created equal - some high schools really do teach harder subject matter than others.
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They tried to do that in the UK recently and it was a disaster. They had issues like improving schools being punished because their grades were better than last year, and being forced to rank all students from a school rather than individually grade them.
Re:3 words: kaplan sat prep (Score:4, Informative)
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No one is mentioning that the SAT lets the colleges detect grade inflation at the high schools. This is something the SAT is able to normalize since they have the SAT scores for the entire student body. This data can be used to adjust GPAs. All A's are not created equal - some high schools really do teach harder subject matter than others.
They may imagine that, but if one school concentrates harder on improving students for SATs and the other on teaching them and getting good GPAs, you will increase the marks of the first school at the cost of the better students from the second school.
Not saying there's absolutely no value, but with absolutely any measurement Goodhart's Law [wikipedia.org] will apply. You need to have more intelligent inspection to ensure that schools actually concentrate on the important things and nor just tests.
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Testing prep identifies students able and willing to prepare themselves.
When I took the SAT, I bought a prep workbook, worked through the chapters, and did all the practice tests.
I likely got a better score than the lazy kid who didn't prepare.
I likely also did better in college, and collegiate success is exactly what the SAT is designed to measure.
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Even that probably wouldn't work. There is a Japanese book (and TV show) called Dragon Zakura that is basically a guide to doing well on college exams and the actual content of the test isn't really all that important.
It's all about techniques like gaming the marking system or learning to cope with exams, e.g. skipping questions you don't know early and not getting flustered, managing your time and showing your working.
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Even that probably wouldn't work. There is a Japanese book (and TV show) called Dragon Zakura that is basically a guide to doing well on college exams and the actual content of the test isn't really all that important.
It's all about techniques like gaming the marking system or learning to cope with exams, e.g. skipping questions you don't know early and not getting flustered, managing your time and showing your working.
Seems like excellent prepartion for college and real life.
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It's all about techniques like gaming the marking system or learning to cope with exams, e.g. skipping questions you don't know early and not getting flustered, managing your time and showing your working.
Reminds me of my time teaching engineers at university. One thing that was apparent from students from less good schools is having worse/no exam technique. I had a student from a very bad school who had got into the university (a top one). A levels don't top out that hard so you can bull through on raw tal
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It's all about techniques like gaming the marking system or learning to cope with exams, e.g. skipping questions you don't know early and not getting flustered, managing your time and showing your working.
I got a near perfect score on a post-college test because the handful of questions I didn't know the answers to could be solved by doing unit analysis of the answer choices.
Making good test questions is easy if you're not doing multiple choice. "Explain X." Making good test questions is hard if you're doing multiple choice. I've seen far too many bad multiple choice tests in my life to have real confidence in any of them. They're fine for low-stakes, quick assessments of knowledge, but they really are not s
Re:3 words: kaplan sat prep (Score:4, Interesting)
This. I have four sets of GRE scores - 2 from my senior year in college and two from 7 years later when I actually went back to grad school (CS PhD).
Why two each time? The first of each I went in cold and did OK. The second of each I prepped (using a book, not a course) and got near perfect in math/logic (English was mediocre both times, I hate memorizing word lists).
It’s not what you know, it’s whether or not you know how to take the test.
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No. I was 100% the test prep. All the logic and math problems follow patterns. Once you know the algorithms to solve them and have practiced them a bit, it’s pretty easy to do well. The third time I took the test, I thought I remembered the algorithms well enough but it turned out I was rusty. A week of practice fixed that.
I know you want to believe that these tears are meritocratic, but they aren’t.
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New endowment == Rich Kid gets degree(for whatever) after several years of partying with the profs and administrators.
I mean look at the punishments, a few days in pretend rich person jail. Basically a day spa.
US Universities esp. the Ivy League are rotten to the core.
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Richie Rich's dad give $25M to endow X chair or name Y building at exclusive school. Richie, not the best student, gets admitted. Actually, I don't have a problem with that. His daddy is paying 50 times the official tuition to the university. That money is funding stuff that all of the students (current and future) theoretically benefit from even if a seat is lost for the next 4 to 5 years. It isn't the same as paying a fixer to take the test, faking athletic skills, or bribing a official or coach with a ni
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And how many kids are going to regularly go to SAT prep after school every night and on weekends?
And how many would actually be able to absorb what the prep regimen is trying to teach?
Think about going for your driver's test for the first time.
Do you just jump in a car and go?
No.
You learn HOW to do it.
Prep teaches you how to differentiate between test structure and the test itself.
You do better because you put the effort into understanding the test structure as well as the subject matter.
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Yeah. I did. I did fail though, although I think it was more for the "Yahooo!" when I turned the key than my actual skills
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Fair would be all kids getting the same SAT prep, the same education, the same laptop, the same breakfasts / lunches.
Of the things you mention, the easiest to make fair is the SAT prep.
The official prep book costs $15 on Amazon. Not many families can't afford that.
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Oh, bullshit. Most families can. Even families on welfare and other relief programs seem capable of getting phones and TVs.
Aside from that, there are free online prep sites (those phones I mentioned) as well as local charity assistance.
The biggest factor by far is if the parents give a shit.
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Re: 3 words: kaplan sat prep (Score:2)
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A good SAT prep book can be checked out from the local library for free.
My spouse signed our daughter up for a prep class. They teach the exact same material that is in the free book at the library. The only advantage of the prep class is they forced her to sit her butt down and do the prep work for several hours per week.
She got into a good college, so I suppose it was worth it.
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She got into a good college, so I suppose it was worth it.
You sound weirdly begrudging of your daughter getting into a good college.
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A teacher cannot be replaced by a book with the same content. If a student is having trouble with one part of the book there is nothing they can do except keep re-reading it, they can't ask questions or get advice. A teacher can check their work too and make specific suggestions on how to improve.
Having a private teacher or being able to afford extra classes is a huge advantage.
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Depends entirely on which teacher and which book.
'Cause no one except that teacher has the answers or ability to coach.
And you jumped to a private tutor why? Poster only said "My spouse signed our daughter up for a prep class." Just like with GED, there is free tutoring for test taking.
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Bullshit. I took one of those. Total waste of time. Nothing but shit that was already obvious to me.
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Here is the problem with standardized tests. They are companies willing to train students on how to do well on the test. The SAT wouldn't be that bad, if students took it without prep, Yes their scores would be lower, however they be more reflective of the students ability. However now that any student with parents with money, or is willing to sacrifice to to pay for such prep, will get tricks to improve your score on the test.
I took the ACT test following some prep exams... the actual ACT had the same science questions in the example test as the actual so I scored 100% on science. The next year I took it again and my science score was more in balance with my other scores, but overall scored higher, so stuck with the second result for admissions.
How about if we just roll some dice? (Score:3)
A D20 for each round of admissions.
For minorities, they can re-roll a time or two.
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Sorry. You have legal equality. Nothing more.
You can't even out native intelligence, environment, and upbringing.
So there's always going to be someone smarter, wealthier and better prepared.
Not saying "just don't try". Of COURSE you should try.
But with the amounts of money flying around, these institutions want to make sure that they're getting students for the long haul.
Not someone who isn't prepared for the collegiate environment, who'll find the program too hard to follow, and drop out after a semeste
I'm no fan of standardized test but... (Score:3)
I don't really like standardized tests much.
But in the case of college admissions, part of what they are trying to judge is if you'd be able to handle the coursework the school offers.
Since most college courses have similar kinds of tests to grade you, to me it seems fair to say taking a standardized test is a fair judge as to how you could handle the testing the classes with generally be throwing at you.
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Since most college courses have similar kinds of tests to grade you, to me it seems fair to say taking a standardized test is a fair judge as to how you could handle the testing the classes with generally be throwing at you.
Similar kinds of tests?
I never once had a test that was similar to the SAT or GRE in any of the US Universities I attended.
So I really don't know what you're talking about.
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I never once had a test that was similar to the SAT or GRE in any of the US Universities I attended.
SAT and GRE tests your ability in reading & comprehension, and logic & reasoning.
So your courses in university never required reading/comprehension/logic/reasoning? Tell us, what did you major in? Let me guess, Gender Studies?
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I kind of agree with cowdung.
I got a STEM degree many years ago and never saw a test that resembled the SAT's multiple choice format of many simple questions. Nor did I ever give a multiple choice test when I was teaching.
That being said, I like the SAT's ability to filter out the hopelessly unready for college.
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I got a STEM degree many years ago and never saw a test that resembled the SAT's multiple choice format of many simple questions. Nor did I ever give a multiple choice test when I was teaching.
This only showed your own preference and ignorance.
GRE, which is required for many STEM post-graduate programme, used the same MC format to test your subject knowledge.
Similar MC format is also used in many high school graduation exam in other countries, e.g. UK's GCE, SE Asian countries, and also in Chinese Gaokau (high school exam) which is used for university entrance admission.
Multiple Choice questions have the strong advantage of leaving no doubt/subjectivity on the correctness of the answer, and being
Re: I'm no fan of standardized test but... (Score:2)
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Then your school did you a great disservice.
I went to school in the 70's, 80's and 90's.
Standardized testing was The Thing.
I wasn't necessarily Straight A's Stewie.
But my ability to test well showed that I WAS absorbing the material and could demonstrate proficiency.
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The PSAT is basically a lottery, like the old telephone slamming scam, or the free gift if you listen to a vacation scam. It exists to collect huge amounts of very personal data on every student in America. This data
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Based on statistics, these tests are a good indication of who will be able to make it through college successfully. What is known is the lower admission requirements are not helping minority students. They have the highest rate of dropping out in the first two years and now saddled with student loan debt. Students doing poorly on the standardized tests would be better served going to a community college for a year or two to prep themselves for the big time, which has the added advantage of reducing costs
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I entered a state university without taking any admissions test. At the time, if I had an associates degree from a nearby community college, I was allowed to enter without taking any tests.
I did fine and graduated with an engineering degree. I even made the Dean's list.
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It would be better to check coursework over a longer period of time.
might be unintended effects (Score:5, Insightful)
put my kids into expensive sports
buy them summer experiences at universities
Hire them tutors to help with homework
Send them to fancy schools
resume build, resume build, resume build
Here are the things that I absolutely can't do anything about with money: improve my kids SAT score if s/he happens to be lazy or a moron.
For a poor family? Reverse that list. There are two things that a poor kid can do well on if they have the brain and the inclination to use it: grades and test scores.
If we drop one of these, that's one less tool the universities will have to identify promising poor kids. Guess what they'll do? They'll go with what's left on that list: everything that rich families have the advantage on. Those tests suck, but I think there's a pretty good chance that dropping them will result in MORE socioeconomic stratification, not less.
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So the smart school would require them for one year, but run their admissions twice, deciding who they would admit both with and without the test being a factor. They could then look at the differences and decide if the new system works better. Of course, that might be a bit skewed, as it may take a few years for people to figure out the best ways to game the test-free system, but it would at least give a good indication.
Re:might be unintended effects (Score:4, Informative)
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This is 100% right. Someone from a poorer background or someone from a rural area can't get a tutor, can't get a fancy summer experience, can't get volunteer experience, and can't take a bunch of AP classes. But they at least have the chance to stand out by doing well on the standardized tests,
Bit of an up hill struggle there as they're competing with people who CAN take those AP classes and have tutors, both of which can presumably help a great deal with the tests.
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Not one of those things is true. I'll presume it's simply lack of experience. I live in a poor, rural area.
1) A tutor doesn't have to be a professional. They just have to know how to teach the subject(s). I've done it a couple times myself.
2) We have plenty of fancy summer experiences. I trust you're just unaware
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Actually, it is pretty clear that past truly horrific scores that pretty much no one gets, score on the SAT pretty much correlate to how many hours of SAT prep you do. And money does buy a whole lot of SAT prep tutoring time.
In practice you don't see correlation between SAT score and actual student performance for mid to high SAT. Because all high SAT students were heavily tutored to pass the SAT.
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SAT pretty much correlate to how many hours of SAT prep you do.
This is complete horsepucky.
Thorough SAT prep, whether with an expensive class or the free book at the library, gets you a max boost of about 60 points out of 1600.
That may be enough to bump you up to a slightly better college. But no prep course is going to put a student destined for Michigan State into Stanford.
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And really, all you have to do a lot of the time to get a kid into school is pay the tuition. All these other things are just a smokescreen to make the process look more fair and keep the peasants from being revolting.
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> Here are the things that I absolutely can't do anything about with money: improve my kids SAT score if s/he happens to be lazy or a moron.
You can pay to have them take the test multiple times, and take the best score for each section.
That has a significant enough cost in time and money to be far more accessible to rich parents, but gives the student the ability to roll the dice repeatedly. Even if we ignore the significant benefits from having previous experience taking the SAT, being able to take the
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Those tests suck, but I think there's a pretty good chance that dropping them will result in MORE socioeconomic stratification, not less.
You can bet that more socioeconomic stratification is exactly the purpose when a college choose to drop SAT or other standardized test off the entrance criteria.
Why? Because to some "prestigious" colleges, having enough new undergraduates from the "correct" group is important. Obviously, "correct" means "not poor".
Why do they even exist? (Score:3)
A) Probably, someone saw an opportunity to scam a lot of money and went for it.
B) Or, perhaps, colleges decided that high school grades etc were not to be trusted. Then, see A)
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Simple, they are meant to ensure the students starting a program poses some minimum level of education so that:
a) they don't end up failing out, wasting their time and money and taking up an admission spot which could have been allocated to a more capable student
b) they don't end up slowing down the learning for the remaining students in order to accommodate the students with missing pre-requisites
I am not saying whether the current test do a good job at this, just saying what their intended purpose is.
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Or perhaps, they were trying to find a way to make admission decisions in a less random way than just rolling the dice.
I've been part of that problem (Score:5, Informative)
For many years I taught SAT prep for Kaplan. Just like all standardized tests, there has been an arms race as the stakes get higher and hight.
I will say that although most students will get a boost from their studies, it won't make a top scorer out of a student who can't or won't study and learn. You could argue that those are the very skills that count for college.
Kaplan has also worked with inner city schools to help their students prepare for the ACT and SAT. They get the same materials and instructors that the suburban school students get. I taught both ends of the spectrum. The tests let those students show what they can do, without worry about grade inflation or comparisons between school districts.
The most direct negative is that some good students suffer from test anxiety, or have skills that aren't measured by the tests. Thankfully there are ways for schools to address those situations.
Re: I've been part of that problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't have them in Canada (Score:3)
We don't have it in Canada, and the system works pretty well, or I suppose more correctly, they're not administered by a third party.
In British Columbia, wen you're in Grade 12, at the end, you write your provincial exams. These are your final exams, and everyone has to write them whether you're headed to University or not. The Universities get your marks from the province, and base admissions on that. So I suppose they're standardized, but they're also your final exams for your graduation. You'll also have separate exams for Math, Physics, English, Chemistry, Biology, or whatever other subjects you're taking.
Re: Don't have them in Canada (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Don't have them in Canada (Score:5, Informative)
So you think. I went to school in Canada, and yes, while there are no official university admissions exams, universities have workarounds. For example they "unofficially" track average performance for students from each high school. They look at the high school grade average percentage (out of 100, instead of letters or 4.0 scale like in the US) of each student when they get admitted to a program, then see what they grade average percentage was after one year, then use that "average drop or raise in grades" when admitting students from that high school in the future. That is worse than standardized testing as your high school past performance can kill your chances completely. I went to a high school in Ontario and applied to a university there with a very high 90's percentage grade average and didn't get in. I was baffled until I found out that students from my high school on average dropped 50% in grade average in that program, meaning they simply would not admit anyone from my high school. I did more research and found that they had a secondary path to get in - they looked at scores from a national math contest for high school students. So, the following year I participated, scored really well, and got into the program. Had they had admissions exams, I would have not wasted a year. The math contest indirectly serves as an admissions exam, for those who don't come from quality high schools with high marks.
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I'll just bet that you don't even realize that statement put you into the category you think you're describing.
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I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
Most schools promote kids along even if they fail everything up into high school. The district I'm currently living in just changed their grading structure so the minimum grade is "just barely passing". They literally decided that no child could fail, even if they did zero work, because half-way through the semester if a kid decides to try, they want them to be rewarded for their effort.
I sort-of get their point, because if you get a 0 for the first half of a se
Surprising (Score:2)
I'm surprised it took the universities this long to consider doing away with them.
After all, tuition money is tuition money, regardless if you can handle the coursework or not.
They really don't care if you learn anything or not.
They really don't care if you can make a decent living with your degree or not.
All they do care about is you make your tuition ( and all the other fees ) payments on time.
As long as you keep feeding them cash, they will let you stay and do whatever you want.
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In the short term, yes.
Over a longer term, the reputation of your product (degreed students) will suffer. Employers will not buy them. And eventually, this signal will make it back to the students. They will leave for other institutions and your will fail.
The other side of this coin is the ivy league schools. They have a reputation of excellence and their product is highly sought after.
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The purpose of admission tests (Score:2)
The purpose of admission tests is to predict with some degree of accuracy the success of the student through the program. It is meant to save time, money, frustration and disappointments for students who will most likely fail out. It also ensures that all students start with some base level of knowledge, so that those don't have to be re-taught at the expense of the speed of learning the new material. The reason why you cannot just rely on previous school scores is because those are not standardized, and an
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So now the Ivy League (Score:2)
They will make even more money (Score:2)
Chart of YOY gains/losses for all AP courses (Score:2)
YOY gains/losses for all courses [staticflickr.com]: With an increase of 20,646 'exams taken' in 2020 (+21%), AP Computer Science Principles was the biggest winner this year (the 2020 AP CSP exam was actually canceled and scores were instead based solely on the course's 'Create and Explore performance tasks'). The biggest loser was English Literature & Composition, which saw a decrease of 46,156 exams (-12%).The total number of AP exams taken in 2020 declined by 346,858 (-7%), while the overall number of students decrease
What better alternatives? (Score:4, Interesting)
It is pointless to ask if something "should be done" without offering any alternatives. It is no different from asking "should stores give food to people without taking money?" because, you know, poor people who cannot pay will starve. Yeah, why not? Until you think of what would happen otherwise.
So what are the alternatives to Standardized Test?
- Randomized test without any standard. Students who can afford to keep taking the test until one got lucky wins. Might as well do admission by lottery, save everyone the effort of taking irrelevant tests.
- Every college administer their own test. Now students/schools have to prep for even more tests, magnifying whatever problem standardized test creates.
- Use high school grades. Now watch every school give A+ to every student. You better not piss off any of your teachers in HS, lest you get a C- and can't get into any college.
- Use lottery for admission - good luck with that!
- Admission goes to the highest bidder. Say goodbye to social mobility, only students with rich parents get into college.
What else?
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Basically, Chinese gaokao or Korean CSAT. Sure, you might eventually "get lucky" but if you keep yourself up in a top test-shape for many years, then you probably deserve the admission and have enough determination to graduate.
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What's wrong with semi-randomized tests that you are allowed to take at most once a year?
Basically, Chinese gaokao or Korean CSAT. Sure, you might eventually "get lucky" but if you keep yourself up in a top test-shape for many years, then you probably deserve the admission and have enough determination to graduate.
Those are hardly "randomized". They change yearly, but the key is to have "everyone get the same test" so it cannot have multiple tests a year.
The main disadvantage of those (once a year test) are, you are screwed if you happened to be sick (or otherwise incapacitated) in that week or two in your life. Yes, you can take another next year if you did badly, BUT it wastes a whole year of your life, and it is very difficult to keep up your memory fresh for a whole year especially if you take any kind of job d
have NFL and NBA start real minor leagues (Score:2)
have NFL and NBA start real minor leagues and the students who really don't have the time for it out of class room / all of the tests they get to bypass.
Hence, ACT (Score:2)
Sounds good at first.... (Score:2)
If it all degenerates into a money thing, we will lock out potential students that aren't swimming in money. And that could be a really bad thing.
SAT should be MUCH harder (Score:2)
The test just needs to be scrapped entirely and replaced with something harder. Something that would make top marks an exception, rather than an expectation. So far my favorite is Korean CSAT with Chinese gaokao coming in second. Russian standardized tests are a
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We should just do the SAT in combined Russian and Chinese otherwise it's way too easy. The questions should be in Russian and the answers should be in Chinese.
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Bell Curve it.
Make it hard enough that the average score is 50%.
Then you can easily pick out the high achievers.
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A significant part of the questions have to be actually hard for that to work. If after grading it on the curve most of the upper half is just noise because a couple questions are not hard but simply ambiguous because the test writers aren't smart enough to forget to write down their own hidden assumptions and quirks, then it won't be meaningful.
Not level, but better than many alternatives (Score:3)
It is possible for a poor student to study for SATs using library materials, without any tutors. Its much harder that with tutoring but its possible. OTOH a poor student's grades may mean nothing to a college if they are not from a college prep high school, and it will be very difficult to get those grades without parents helping / teaching.
They may be a more fair approach but until one is identified, I think standardized tests are better than not having them.
I would drop any essay questions - the are much easier for students with well educated (read wealthy) parents who always speak correct English around the house.
SJWs at work (Score:2)
Let's be honest: the reason for the push to eliminate tests is because they are not yielding PC results. Asians outscore whites outscore hispanics outscore blacks. This is simply not acceptable to progressives. SJWs figure that all groups ought to magically do equally well, because anything else is racist.
The fact is that different groups do perform differently. Allow me a to over-generalize one difference: Black inner-city culture considers doing well in school to be "acting white", whereas Asian kids have
Ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances. (Score:2)
I think SAT is a scam (Score:2)
Will just become more elitist ... (Score:2)
Anyone can score well on a test with aptitude. Not everyone can be connected, learn the shit the admission committees want to hear this year or come from a good high school where the grading means a damn.
Merit is dead (Score:2)
Standardized tests were created to mitigate inequities in college admissions, such as differences among high schools, favoritism by teachers, biases in admissions offices, bias based on wealth, and racial, ethnic, religious, and national origin quotas.
Today, that is exactly what we DON'T want. What we want is admissions based solely on race, religion, ethnicity, wealth. Therefore, merit-based standardized tests must be done away with as another symptom of systemic racism.
It's not the equalizer it was (Score:2)
Combine standardized tests with insanely competitive Ivy League admissions, and you get a situation that wasn't envisioned long ago. You will get the occasional outlier student who came from a poor/less nurturing environment and use the standardized test for its initial purpose. But speaking as someone who lives in a relatively nice area, these tests are just another game-able hurdle that the crazy-driven parents will pay to have their kids jump over. First, well-off kids will have a better exposure to the
Without them, what? (Score:2)
Specifically thinking of smaller and rural schools.
For an example, there are 354 high schools in Kansas. http://www.kshsaa.org/Public/G... [kshsaa.org] shows their grade 9-12 enrollments.
Every one of those schools has at least one "best in her class" 4.0++ valedictorian. Many of them also have a 3.8 slacker or two who are honestly more academically gifted than the 4.0 diligents.
Should all of those valedictorians be in a lottery for 'top schools'? Not really. On average, the best student in a class of 75-80 will be a +2