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SAT: COLLEGE ACCEPTANCE IS THE WORST
ANALOGY
By Richard
Petz
Almost every student in the country who has applied to college has gone through the arduous process of taking an entrance exam, and of these students two million a year take the SAT.
The SAT is owned and sponsored by the College Board, a nonprofit, national membership association of more than 3,900 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. The acronym SAT used to stand for Scholastic Aptitude Test, but after the test was renamed in 1994 the acronym just stuck.
There are other college entrance exams besides the SAT. The other popular choice is the ACT or the American College Test, which is given to more than two million students a year in all 50 states.
The ACT differs from the SAT in that it prides itself in not being an aptitude test and that it claims it tests information that is much closer to what is being taught in the classroom. The SAT tests Verbal and Mathematics whereas the ACT tests English, Reading, Mathematics, and Science Reasoning.
Standardized tests face a large amount of criticism, much of this comes from the high school students who know that this one three hour block can have a tremendous effect on the rest of their life. High schools around the country have their own sets of standards and their own curriculums, for that reason it is hard to say whether a standardized test can ever be fair.
Although the College Board reviews curriculums of schools across the nation, it is unknown how many schools classes do not follow that of the SAT. If they do not, should schools be forced to change the information that they teach so that a student might get a better score on a college entrance exam but not get the same level of education that the school feels it could provide if it were not restricted by these important tests.
Besides the fact that what is being taught in school might not mimic what appears on one of these standardized tests, there is another criticism to them. The National Center for Fair & Open Testing or Fair Test as it is known, is an advocacy organization that is, “working to end the abuses, misuses and flaws of standardized testing and ensure that evaluation of students and workers is fair, open, and educationally sound.” The group claims that standardized tests assume that all test-takers have been exposed to a white, middle-class background.
Anne Moore, Guidance Counselor, Roselle Park High School, Roselle Park, NJ agrees that these tests are not fair and that they are bias against minorities. “I can remember two examples on English proficiency tests where one reading selection talked about sky scrapers and Spiderman, and another that talked about stage coaches and wagon trains moving out west.”
As a former ESL teacher she knows that some of these concepts cannot even be translated into other languages that some of these students originally spoke. “They would have no idea about what a stage coach is or Westward expansion.”
The College Board protects against as much bias as it can though, it takes two years for each question to go from original concept to appearing as an actual test question. After a number of review boards look at the question it will go to an outside panel, and then finally appear on the test in a special section that is called the equating section.
Test takers do not know which section is the equating section and it can either be math or verbal. The section does not count but the information is vital for future tests.
Once that section is scored it is measured against what percentage of students got it right and then in sub groups such as sex and ethnicity. If there is anything that appears out of the ordinary then the question is changed and goes through the process again.
While most professionals agree that the SAT and tests like it do have some validity, they do not feel that they should be the top way of schools choosing students for their new freshmen class.
David Greer, World Languages Teacher, Edison, NJ school district said, “The SAT’s are fair, the score you get represents how much you know.” Greer also said, “It is not fair to use as the sole reason for allowing entrance to a school.”
Kristin A. Carnahan, Associate Director, Public Affairs, The College Board agrees, “The SAT is just one piece of information. We encourage colleges to use portfolios grades and other means to pick students.”
Even though colleges might use multiple resources when looking for prospective students the SAT still plays a huge role and many student try to better their scores on the SAT through test preparation course like those offered by The Princeton Review.
The Princeton Review states in its Core Beliefs that, “Everyone should get a college-ready education. College isn’t for everyone, but there’s no reason to believe that 90% of wealthy kids but only 30% of disadvantaged kids are innately college material. Those figures need to get much closer.”
“Women score 40-50 points lower on the SAT than men do but have better grades in high school and college,” according to Harriet Brand, director of public relations for The Princeton Review.
This can mean that women are then penalized twice because not only will it be tougher for them to get into certain schools, many scholarships place heavy emphasis on SAT scores.
The Princeton Review provides a number of resources for test preparation ranging from small classes that can cost up to $1000 or a $20 book that provides sample test questions.
Using these test prep methods could alter your score, but Kathleen Mooney, English Teacher, Roselle Park High School, Roselle Park, NJ disagrees. “I do not believe that a moronic individual will do well on a standardized test, but the opposite might be true. So they are a useful assessment tool provided that they are only part of a larger whole.”
Just to clear up any myths The College Board does admit that you earn 200 points for just putting your name on the test because no score of fewer than 200 is recorded.