Editor’s note: This Future View is about dropping SAT and ACT scores as a college admissions requirement, as the president of the University of California has recommended. Next week we’ll discuss students’ experience with online instruction: What has worked and what hasn’t? Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before May 26. The best responses will be published that night.
Bias and Objectivity
College admissions testing partly measures two unequal endowments: innate intelligence and socioeconomic status. This is true of the entire admissions process, but at no other time so plainly as on a Saturday morning spent filling in bubbles. SAT and ACT scores correlate well with IQ and household income, but unlike essays, letters of recommendation, extracurriculars and high-school grade-point average, they are objective, quantitative and standard. This makes them a uniquely valuable tool in the process of assessing applicants’ potential. But the data they provide—a stark picture of inequality—also make us deeply uncomfortable.
As college admissions become more competitive, applicants are motivated to take advantage of all their options, and their parents’ options, to burnish their credentials. You can buy an application essay, wheedle out recommendation letters, and manufacture impressive-sounding extracurriculars. You can benefit from unconscious bias in personal interviews. (I should know, as I interview undergrads for Stanford, my alma mater.) But short of committing wire fraud, you can’t fake a good score on the SAT. Specialized instruction helps, but free testing resources have become available all over the internet, allowing any motivated person with Wi-Fi to study comprehensively.
I agree wholeheartedly that the full context of an applicant’s life story should be considered. At the scale of college admissions, however, some triage of applications is necessary to sort likely candidates from the rest. In the absence of a standardized test, any initial evaluation would have to consider quickly the qualitative facts of an applicant’s life without giving him his just due. Names, places and stories pique our associations and biases. Numbers are neutral enough to avoid this.
It would be unfair and foolish to make the process fully quantitative. But it would be similarly unwise to forgo the most objective piece of information in college admissions.
—Viraj Mehta, Carnegie Mellon University, robotics (Ph.D.)
More Than a Test
Standardized testing in U.S. college admissions reinforces the values of meritocracy. When I first prepared for the SAT and ACT as a teenager, I did so believing that it was possible to get ahead in life through hard work. While the U.S. isn’t a perfect meritocracy, standardized testing is a tangible reminder of an ideal that we ought to strive toward.
Those who claim the tests reinforce inequality should focus their energies on leveling the playing field, not hiding the scoreboard; on giving people more of an equal start, not doing away with the race altogether. The state ought to make preparatory resources more available and improve the public school system. Covid-19 has accelerated the development of online tools and resources. Let’s put them to work.
Standardized testing isn’t perfect, but it is the most merit-based part of the admissions process. Without the tests—and still beneath the banner of faux equality—it becomes a formality for elite institutions to discriminate against Asians, just as they used to against Jewish applicants, on subjective metrics.
As much as I loathed studying for the SAT, I see its role in inspiring my work ethic. Standardized testing represents the promise of merit-based advancement for every American. Those who call for greater equality must take care that they don’t sign a blank check for arbitrary or discriminatory decisions.
—David Liu, University of Chicago, economics
Not Fair
Dropping the requirement to take the SAT or ACT is long overdue. Standardized scores are an easy way for universities to filter applications, but in doing so inequalities are amplified and many promising students get left behind.
Although everyone takes the same test, there are an endless number of textbooks, tutors and practice tests that students can employ to improve their scores. Parents can and do spend thousands of dollars prepping their kids to maximize their scores. Lower-income families often don’t have the time or money to invest in these materials, at least not to the same extent.
The College Board, responsible for designing and administering the tests, will argue that the SAT and ACT provide a way for disadvantaged students to stand out to colleges. If they score high, the door will be opened to higher education and scholarships. Much more common, it seems to me, is that the test gives another advantage to those with more resources and knowledge of how the test works, students who are usually already college-bound. Standardized testing allows universities to sort applicants quickly but not fairly.
—Shosi Hansen, Wake Forest University, sociology and communication
The Testing Gap and Covid-19
As lecture halls reduce to pixels in “Zoom rooms” and testing dates for the SAT and ACT are canceled, admissions officers are right to drop test requirements for 2021 applicants. Better yet, universities should abolish this flawed assessment method permanently.
Critics of the College Board often cite the test-score disparity between rich and poor—which the testing monopoly briefly tried to address with its failed, tactless “adversity score”—as grounds to discontinue SAT admissions requirements. That argument has never been stronger than it is today, during the Covid-19 pandemic. As more than 35 million Americans file for unemployment and nearly 100,000 small businesses close their doors for good, the disparity in test scores will only worsen. Fees for prep classes, textbooks and testing pile up, rendering the testing requirement a barrier to college admission.
Besides, standardized tests reveal more about student mastery of testing strategies than about knowledge. Multiple-choice reading sections also present subjective textual interpretations as true or false, denying test takers the opportunity to exhibit original thought and the ability to write and defend academic arguments, critical components of success in university.
I hope this time of national hardship pushes admissions officials to re-evaluate burdensome and ineffective testing requirements. A student’s collegiate success ultimately depends on work ethic, which may be gauged by other factors, such as GPA and the difficulty of high-school courses, contextualized by the school’s profile. Coupled with personal statements and extracurriculars, these measures would allow most universities to make good on their promises to evaluate applicants holistically.
—Rebecca Leppert, George Washington University, religious studies
What Equity?
SAT and ACT scores are the last bastion of impartiality in an otherwise mystifying and unaccountable system. Critics argue that reliance on test scores favors the well-to-do, but where does this logic end? The SAT and ACT still measure college readiness. Should employers also favor ill-prepared applicants because they might have had more difficult lives?
There is no better way than standardized testing to measure the academic abilities of prospective students en masse. High-school GPA won’t do it, as grading varies substantially between schools. Wealthier schools in particular have been accused of inflating grades to give their students an edge in college admissions.
Contrary to popular belief, the SAT and ACT measure much more than the extent of students’ knowledge. They also quantify the ability to prepare and perform under stressful conditions, as well as focus for long periods. These are essential skills for college.
If the University of California wishes not to require the SAT or ACT, it is free to do so. Let’s hope this doesn’t cause its campuses to admit students who are unprepared for the rigor of college, who will throw thousands of dollars at degrees they’ll never earn. Let’s also hope it doesn’t reduce the ability of high scorers to showcase their achievements. If “equity” at the University of California means disregarding the high scores of the smartest and hardest-working, those students will look elsewhere for their education.
—Calvin Kotrba, University of Iowa, piano performance and mathematics
On Paper
Soon to be a senior in high school, I have been preparing for the SAT since my freshman year. I have gone through books of SAT prep with tutors, memorized every grammar rule known to man, and spent countless hours taking practice tests. My parents have spent a good deal of money to ensure that I am fully prepared for a test that may influence the course of my entire life. Now, only after all this preparation, do I feel confident that I will achieve my desired score when I finally take the SAT—coronavirus permitting. But do all students have access to the sort of instruction that I have had?
The SAT reminds me of the saying, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” Unfortunately, I’m the pig in this one. I know every shortcut, every tip and trick there is. It’s quite likely that I will look much better on paper than in real life. While this is all to my benefit, I struggle to believe that standardized tests are the right way to determine who is best suited to fill scarce college slots.
—Ian Bonham, Carroll High School (Texas)
Narrow the Scope
I recognize the flaws of standardized tests. For one, they treat equally the scores of students from different backgrounds. Some students have to devote a great deal of time to after-school jobs instead of studying for the SAT. Wealthier college applicants can pay for expensive tutors and courses. That’s all true, but standardized testing is still a great way to compare candidates of similar backgrounds. Test scores are not and should not be the only data point for college admissions, but they can help distinguish candidates from their peers. It would be a mistake for colleges to drop the testing requirement.
—Matt Bludgen, Indiana University, finance and business analytics
Click here to submit a response to next week’s Future View.
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"What" - Google News
May 20, 2020 at 06:31AM
https://ift.tt/3e2itq0
What Good Is the SAT? - The Wall Street Journal
"What" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aVokM1
https://ift.tt/2Wij67R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "What Good Is the SAT? - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment