Why The SAT Should Be Abolished The SAT, which is a national standardized test, designed to test skills, accuracy and knowledge of students has always been surrounded by controversies. It was originally created to eliminate the difference between students from different social backgrounds and provide equal level field. The test was developed by a psychologist from Princeton named Dr Carl Brigham in 1926, who also had controversial views on race, that suggested Anglo-Saxons were more intelligent than Other Races. Later in which he publicly apologized for. The SAT was designed to have impact on everyone equally, but studies have suggested the opposite. Initially the test aimed to give students from small towns in the northeast of the …show more content…
According to Robert Jackson in . “Retooling education: Testing and the Liberal Arts” Colleges who changed their admission by making the SAT optional have directed their aims into a more high school grade based admission. This solution is the only true measurement we have at the moment and it is a better measurement than the SAT states Robert Jackson. The writer also goes on to say scholastic aptitude should be abolished, as it has no true value or indicator of student’s ability. A more precise measurement based on four years of schoolwork is a pretty good indicator of student’s ability. It gives equal playing field for all students from their freshmen year in high school until their senior year in high school. Students have equal opportunities to perform giving them four years to accomplish good grades for college admissions. this method gives unprivileged students the opportunity to go to college who previously could not attend college because of SAT Prep cost. Also this method benefits college admissions by providing an indicator on how students will perform in college classes making it easy to admit or deny …show more content…
Mr. Caperton who is the current president of the College Board who officiates the SAT states the SAT provides tools for college admissions to compare student (Caperton). The Ex-Governor of West Virginia also suggests that the test does not discriminate against minorities, he argues that colleges who make the SAT optional do it to enhance their status and not in the best interest of the students (Caperton). Alternative solutions exist. The test is going to have a major reform starting in 2016. Article from USA Today by Zoroya discusses the changes the test will have starting in the spring of 2016. According to the article by Zoroya officials from college board announced specific changes such as the test will become harder but questions will be more direct and practical, shortened duration of the test. The major change will be the change of high score from 2400 to 1600. I disagree with those who argue the SAT provides an equal playing field for all. There are studies that show the correlation between high SAT scores and high-income student. This date shows the inequality the SAT brings. Therefore all colleges should make the test as optional. I realize that the SAT gives students with bad grades the opportunity to attend good college with great SAT
... a tedious process, but the change can have immense, positive effects for the future college student. The ACT and SAT that supposedly measure a student's learning potential through multiple-choice questions should be replaced by a test of a student's desire to learn determined through the analysis of essays, recommendation letters, and school or community involvement. This change can result in a more academically motivated freshman class. Standardized testing in its current form does not accurately measure most students' learning potential. It does not allow for diversity and creates a huge hurdle for many potential academic achievers. An adjustment to a diverse, open testing format of the ACT or SAT and a stress on the student's other academic accomplishments can accurately measure the student's desire to learn, therefore measuring the student's learning potential.
A study conducted by Charles Rooney a member of the National Center for Fair and Open testing states that, "[More than 275 colleges and universities across the United States, acting on the belief that "test scores do not equal merit," do not use the SAT or the ACT to make admissions decisions about some part or all of their freshmen.]"
The SAT's have sometimes been the deciding factor when determining a student's admission to a certain college, but recently colleges have stopped regarding SAT scores as the most important factor, and in some cases, colleges are now not even requiring applicants to submit their scores. This change in significance of the SAT's is due to recent controversy over the fairness of the test. According to Fair Test (2001) three hundred and eighty-eight schools do not require applicants to submit their SAT scores, and hundreds more do not place much emphasis on the scores. Because of the recent controversy and the number of schools not looking at or de-emphasizing the SAT's, the College Board, (the company in charge of designing, administering, and grading the test), has decided to make several changes to the format of the SAT's (which was just revised in 1994). These changes will take effect in the year 2005.
However, in March 2014, College Board announced that the SAT will be redesigned in 2016. The College Board describes this change as “expanding its outreach to low income students and shifting from testing abstract-reasoning skills to evidence based reading, writing and mathematical skills acquired in high school.” Some believe that this is a positive change in higher education. Randolf Arguelles, conversely, is not one of them. As the title of his article suggests, in “The New SAT Will Widen the Education Gap; Everyone Who Takes the Test is Measured against the Same Yardstick. That 's Not True of High School Grades," Arguelles writes that “the new SAT will widen, not narrow, the education gap in the United States.” He explains that with the old SAT, what was important was if you had a strong vocabulary, could make inferences, and apply math concepts, not whether you had excellent teachers or not throughout the years. I agree. Although the new test is being designed in hopes of reliving tension by eliminating costly test preparation and focusing on concepts that should be learned over the course of high school, that may not be the case. The key phrase in the last sentence is “should be learned.” Teaching styles and learning styles vary all throughout the world; they often clash among
"Former Bates College Dean of Admissions, William Hiss, said that intelligence is so complex, varied, and multifaceted that “no standardized testing system can be expected to capture it”(Westlund). Throughout the years standardized testing has changed its purpose and not for the better. In the late 1930s, the goal of taking standardized test was to award scholarships to "diamond in the rough" students (Westlund). Currently, the whole idea of taking the SAT or ACT is getting admitted into a college. Standardized test should not be a deciding factor of being admitted into a college.
Presumably, the most widely known of these measures has been the Scholastic Aptitude Test (now the SAT Reasoning Test, or SAT). Developed by the Educational Testing Service after World War II, the test in many ways was the big idea of James Bryant Conant. Adhering to democratic, classless society, Conant thought that such tests could identify the ability of individuals and ultimately help to equalize educational opportunities (Frontline, 1999). Unfortunately, many have argued that instead of fostering equality, the SATs have become an instrument to separate the social classes, and many in the testing movement were not as magnanimous as James Bryant Conant.
Thousands of students around the country and around the world will be preparing for the SAT and ACT tests while trying to maintain a high GPA. These tests will potentially have a significant impact on students' lives. Some will be taking these tests for the second or even third time to get that 1500 out of 1600 or that 33 out of 36, that they long desire. These flawed tests are not truly able to measure how well students will perform in college as they are supposedly used to predict. A single test that students have to wake up for at six, seven in the morning on a Saturday and travel to some random location to take a difficult test should not impact the student's chance of getting into college, let alone predict how well they will do in college.
Standardized testing is not the best way to measure how well a teacher teaches or how much a student has learned. Schools throughout the United States put their main focus on standardized tests; these examinations put too much pressure on the teachers and students and cause traumatizing events. Standardized testing puts strain on teachers and students causing unhealthy occurrences, Common Core is thrown at teachers with no teaching on how to teach the new way which dampers testing scores for all students, and the American College Test determines whether a child gets into college or not based on what they have learned during high school. Standardized tests are disagreeable; tests should not determine ranking of people.
Standardized testing is a type of test usually serve to determine how well you understand a concept which is often used for placement. These types of test include questions in a form of an essay, short answers, multiple choices, or a combination of these together and are given out as early as in kindergarten. This practice has been used for so long that it has become a part of the American culture. Every year, high school juniors and seniors worldwide take the SAT or the ACT in the hope that they score high enough to get into their dream school. However, there has been a lot of ongoing debates revolving around the idea of the use of standardized testing in college admission and the whether or not they are effective in determining a student’s
Today, in the United States, standardized tests are administered every year by states to their Kindergarten-12th grade public school students. Different states place different weight on their standardized testing results where some states differ their funding based on results and annual improvement, whereas other states allow schools to simply gauge where their students are scoring relative to other schools in the state. These tests, however, are only standardized within one state. One of the few tests standardized throughout the entire country is the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered by College Board and required by, “More than 800 of the nation’s colleges and universities,” (Comras, 1984). This test will be the standardized test focused on in this paper. While standardized testing is that, standardized, and enables the comparison of one student to another, the meaning of the score does not equate to a test of intelligence. Therefore, while standardized testing should be applied in the education system, it needs to be more indicative of the material learned in school and should hold less weight than it currently does in the college admissions process.
Data on SAT scores by race shows that White test-takers perform significantly better than all racial minorities with exception of Asians. African-Americans consistently perform most poorly on the SAT. One possible explanation is bias in question construction. The SAT uses an experimental section to test questions that may be used for the future. If they don’t test well, they are scrapped. If they do, they are placed on future tests. Jay Rosner analyzed 276 verbal and math questions from the 1998-2000 SATs. He discovered what he calls “Black questions,” which more Blacks than Whites answered correctly on the experimental sections. These questions never make it into the scored sections and instead, the SAT contains “White questions” (Rosner). Rosner argues that the questions are geared toward Whites, as test developers are mandated to recreate the norm, and the norm is White males outperforming their peers. Another form of racial bias that has been researched is Differential Item Functioning (DIF). A DIF question is one in which students “matched by proficiency” and other factors have variable scores, predictably by race, on selected questions. Santelices and Wilson found in 2010 that the SAT has these DIF questions, and
High-stakes testing is for the cookie cutter student not the unique individual student. High stakes testing was started in 1905 by French psychologist Alfred Binet. He began developing a standardized test of intelligence which was named Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. During World War I, standardized testing was standard practice, it was how U.S. servicemen jobs were divided and assigned. Years passed and the first test to come into play was the SAT, it was founded in 1926 as the Scholastic Aptitude Test by the College Board. Years passed again in 1959 and to compete against the SATs, the ACT (American College Testing) were created. The test was made up of questions that geared students to a course of study by asking about their interests. In addition to math, reading and English skills, the ACT assesses students on their knowledge of scientific facts and principles. These tests have become just geared toward college as the decades went by. Decades past and new tests came were created, in 1980 the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS), 1984 the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS), 1991 the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
Should high school exit exams (like OGT) be abolished? The Ohio Graduation tests are based upon Ohio’s Learning standard. The State's Board of Education adopted in English Language Arts, Mathematics , science and Social studies. High school exit exams had schools and students accountable for teaching and learning skills (greatschools.org). Standards were designed to ensure that students are armed with the knowledge they need to be successful in higher educational pursuits as well as the jobs and careers of the future (ode.gov).
Standardized scores are separate from a person’s character. Instead, it is often the person himself or herself who jumps to conclusions associating scores with how good a student is (Suematsu 9). The purpose of test scores are only to measure whether a high school graduate has mastered enough knowledge for his or her future plan as an adult (Walberg 1). Whether or not a student is accepted by a school should not be based on a subjective evaluation of character. Only objective test scores can be controlled by hard work.
Just because their test score isn't high in math/reading, doesn't mean they are not intelligent and should be moved to lower classes. As well as them only testing a few subjects, standardized tests waste time from learning in classes due to their preparation. Noah also mentions, “Typically, over a month of instructional time was devoted to test prep. The outcome? More test prep was associated with lower ACT scores” (Berlatsky).