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“Standardized Test Scores and their use in College Admissions Decisions”
“Standardized Test Scores and their use in College Admissions Decisions”
Advantages of standardized testing for college application
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There are many who believe that the SAT can actually be beneficial for students and that it can be used as a proficient indicator of academic ability and aptitude. Emily J. Shaw, an employee at The College Board, was in favor of the SAT and provides further evidence about the concept of test validity. Shaw claimed that “The College Board has focused much of its validity research efforts on examining the relationship between the SAT and measures of college success,” as well as “focusing on the evidence supporting the use of SAT scores in college admission decisions (Shaw 1).” [Shaw primarily used statistics to find the positive correlations between student GPAs and SAT scores. Shaw referred to University of Minnesota Professor Paul Sackett’s study to support her claim, stating that “78% of those students in highest SAT …show more content…
Subotnik also argued that “an overall track record of semester grades gives a better indication of a student’s competence (Gilmore 394).” Even though it had already been proven that the SAT has asked certain questions that minority students have little chance of answering correctly, Subotnik had always attempted to “deflect the fact that the SAT has always been racially and culturally biased (Gilmore 396).” Building onto what Subotnik stated, Shaw also believed that “the socioeconomic status and ethnic background of a student does not interfere with their academic performance (Shaw 1).” In contrast, Professor Guinier believed that standardized testing was not a fair indicator of a student’s overall success in higher
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
... 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 scholarly journal written by an anonymous author sheds light on the importance of standardized testing by showing its efficiency in higher level education. This article provides a solid counterargument for the use of standardized tests which is standardized tests being a good source of predicting grades throughout college as well as whether students will stay long enough to graduate. It is also able to establish that the SAT is effective in forecasting a grade-point average through the fourth year as well as predicting students study habits. The
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.]"
Through the use of credible sources, an explanation, and connection to thesis Rizga is able to back up her argument. Rizga provides many credible sources; one of the many is Robert Glaser, “the godfather of standardized testing.” Rhee, however, although providing evidence, does not cite her source. Rizga writes about how Roberts Glaser warned people of the dangers of emphasizing on standardized testing. Rhee, on the other hand, states “Out of 34 developed nations, American kids rank 26th in the world in math, 21st in science and 17th in reading.” Rizga then explains her evidence by elaborating on Glaser’s warning by saying: “He called them ‘fallible and partial indicators of academic achievement’ and warned that standardized tests would find it ‘extremely difficult to assess’ the key skills people should gain from a good education.” Rhee, however, never explains her evidence. Rizga’s evidence clearly connects with her thesis because it supports her argument of how standardized tests are not an efficient way to measure a student’s intelligence. Rhee’s evidence supports the idea of how standardized test should be used to see how the United States ranks in the world, but this is not Rhee’s thesis. Through the use of credible sources, an explanation, and connection to the thesis, Rizga is able to clearly support her
According to statistics published by Finley (2002), of the results from the 2001 SAT's, the average verbal score for African Americans and Hispanics was 433, while for whites it was 529, and the average math score for African Americans and Hispanics was 426, while for whites it was 531. This is a big difference by about 200 points. The comparison between African American and Hispanic scores with white scores can make a big difference in the student body of colleges who place a big emphasis on SAT scores. In 1997, the dean of Berkeley said, "We have evidence that the SAT lost us two thousand Latino students this year alone." (Zwick, 1999). This shows that even in 1997, just three years after the SAT was revised, educators were still seeing problems with it.
"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.
Standardized testing assesses students, teachers, and the school itself, which puts a great deal of pressure on the students. High scores show that the school is effective in teaching students, while low test scores make teachers and schools look as though they are not teaching the students properly. This is not always the case. There are teachers who do teach students what they need to know to pass the test, but their students are still unprepared. Although teachers try to improve instruction, student performance is still variable to other factors that the school cannot control.
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 scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
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.
Designed to measure the math, reading and writing skills necessary to predict college success, The SAT Reasoning Test is the most popular and widely accepted exam used for college entrance available today. A team of U.S. colleges developed its earliest form, known as the College Entrance Exam, in 1901. This essay-only test was designed for students applying to colleges to take one entrance exam instead of separate exams for each university. In 1926, the College Entrance Exam became the SAT (Student Aptitude Test). The test was formatted to multiple-choice in order to objectively assess a student’s college readiness while giving all students an equal opportunity for success. Since then, the title of the test was changed again to no longer stand for Student Aptitude Test due to the multifaceted purpose of the test. Published by the Educational Testing Service, the current title of the test, “SAT”, is just an acronym that no longer stands for anything. Still, the SAT has been constantly developing to best assess student scholarly performance (“History of the Tests”, 2014).
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
In the early 1930s, James B. Conant, president of Harvard University, decided to develop a test for admissions, that was reliable way to measure student achievement without taking into consideration who the test taker was or what background they came from. According to Kevin Finneran, editor of Issues in Science & Technology, Conant believed that through administering the same test to all applicants for admission, factors such as family wealth, which private or elite academy the student may have attended, and any benefits their attendance would bring to the university would be removed from the decision making process. While his colleagues believe this would provide a real excuse for excluding those they did not particularly want entering Harvard, they were soon proved wrong as an increasing number of underprivileged students began scoring very high on tests and ultimately earning acceptance into the university.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Too much emphasis is put on standardized testing for college admissions. Standardized testing is the number one way to enroll students in to college. Standardized testing has its pros and cons when it comes to college admissions. The ACT and SAT avenues play a major part in students’ lives more than actual school life. Student-athletes have a much harder stint with college admissions than most when it comes to standardized testing (“arguments”). For example, two young men, John and Greg, plays high school football with the dream of playing at a college level. Both have the same athletic talent, but John had a 3.5 GPA while Greg had a 2.0 GPA. Scores are received and John made a 17 and Greg makes a 24. While both student-athletes have equal talent, most schools in the country would only want Greg despite John’s 3.5 GPA. Is that fair? Did Greg prepare better than John? Was John having a bad day? Was Greg’s version of the test so different, which if John would ...