Kaleidoscope's Flaws

GPA, SAT, and ACT may not be accurate when testing which student will succeed in college. Robert Sternberg, former president of the University of Wyoming and former dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts, has invented a method of testing the true talents of college applicants. The policy he uses is called Kaleidoscope. The basis from Kaleidoscope stems from Sternberg’s WICS (wisdom, intelligence, creativity, synthesized) and his Triarchic Theory. The concept this provides is to measure first-year academic success. The program is for the students that were on the bottom end of the economic spectrum, students that have learned other skills than just memorization and analytical thinking.

The method Kaleidoscope uses open ended questions to measure characteristics such as, creative, practical and wisdom based skills. These questions are formed by a thesis of leadership. Positive leaders require “creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom based skills” according to Sternberg. Kaleidoscope’s benefits greatly outweigh the cost by changing the collection of students and showing what it means to have a talented student. “Every year that Kaleidoscope measurers were used in the admissions process, the entering class’s average SATs and high school GPAs went up.” As stated by

Frank DiMaria. A couple of institutions who have had great success while implementing this are Oklahoma State and at Tufts. Robert Sternberg and his Kaleidoscope program, prove that everyone has a chance of succeeding despite what your test scores portray. These questions show that there are other skills that give evidence of being a successful student in the college environment.
Specifically, Kaleidoscope is an admissions process that puts you through creative essay questions along with other similar challenges. These questions can be things such as writing a story with a title such as "The End of Television”. Another example would drawing an advertisement for a new product. An example of an analytical item in the process would be for someone to state their favorite and explain why it’s their favorite book. A practical item is another example it can be something along the lines of, explain how one convinced someone of an idea they did not initially accept. The last example of a wisdom-based question would be “How would you take a current passion and transform it later to serve the good of others?” These questions are extremely helpful in determine whether a student would be good in a college environment or not.
Similarly there are other attributes that determine success in the college environment. The kaleidoscope method Sternberg designed test attributes such as creativity, analytical, practical, and wisdom based skills. Abilities such as these are all qualities of an active college student. Students who make it through the Kaleidoscope admissions process tend to take leadership roles and participate in more events within the college community. Overall having more active leaders within the school system make the overall environment of the campus better.
Another great thing about this type of admissions process is that it allows students with a lower economic ranking to become successful college students.

Someone coming from a lower income or impoverished family may have a harder time being prepared for standardized test. Whereas someone from a higher income may have more resources to be ready for the difficult questions the standardized test put out. Students coming from a lower economic ranking learn more practical skills. It’s not fair that a test that someone was never prepared for should determine whether they move along with their education. Kaleidoscope makes the admissions process more even and less biased towards one economic

class.
Along with evening the college playing field for admissions, Kaleidoscope also helps with diversity. It’s a great way to help those minorities that have a harder time scoring high on their standardized test get accepted into college. Sternberg says,” The reason, I believe, based on our research, is that members of different ethnic and socioeconomic groups have different prototypical conceptions of what it means to be smart and often need different skills to adapt to their environments as they grow up.” An example of this being someone being placed in an inner city environment where they would have to learn more practical and creative skills for survival. This is something that a high/middle class student may not have to worry about. People from different ethnic groups acquire different skills, that doesn’t necessarily mean one is “smarter” or more “intelligent” than another. These are things each person judges differently. The kaleidoscope process helps people from all ethnic groups have a chance at making it into a college therefore increasing the diversity within the student population.
Moreover, the Kaleidoscope admissions process seems to have had a major impact on 2 big colleges. One being Oklahoma State. The other being Tufts. Oklahoma State doesn’t fully use Kaleidoscope but they use many of the same types of questions the same way so they can still pick from the most creative and worthy students for the college life style. The reason being Sternberg states is that “At a land-grant institution, access looms much larger. The institution wants to provide access to as many qualified students as possible, especially from within-state. So having a low selection ratio does not have the same meaning; our goal is to provide opportunity, not to exclude students from it.” Tufts on the other hand is a much smaller school so it is easier for them to pick through the applications more carefully to ensure the students they want are accepted. “At Tufts, our hope was that we could be as selective as possible. The goal was to select the very strongest students, and Kaleidoscope provided a way to broaden the selection process so as better to select the optimal leaders of tomorrow.” Says Sternberg. Even though it may not be able to be used on a full scale in every college like it should it still is relevant in the fact that colleges should still try to accept tomorrow’s leaders.
Sternberg has created a way to broaden the search for great college students that don’t go with the usual standardized test scores. Everyone has different skills that go beyond just memorization and analytical skills. His process Kaleidoscope is a great way to help change the statistics of college campuses as well as making them home for a more diverse community. The admissions process is no longer geared towards privileged children, but for the most qualified individuals that possess more than one skill. It helps allow the young leaders of the future make their way into college without being denied for low scores that they may not have any control over whether they are good at them or not.