The Pros And Cons Of The SAT

Standardized tests have been around for many years. During the 1920’s the SAT was known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (Syverson 56). According to Steven Syverson, in 1993 the test was renamed as Scholastic Assessment Tests in an effort to reflect the changing nature of the test (56). Jonathan Epstein notes that by 1994, the acronym was removed completely, keeping only the initials SAT (9). The United States Department of Education reports that the Scholastic Assessment Test [known as SAT] measures your ability rather than knowledge and is composed of three sections: writing, critical reading, and math (3). “The American College Testing Program [known as ACT] measures how you think and what you’ve learned in school, it consist of four multiple-choice

Standardized testing has been proven to be biased towards those of ethnic and socioeconomic disadvantaged groups. Wealthy students become more prepared for standardized tests through better life experiences, such as top-quality schools and test prep tutors. Steven Syverson implies that students with high SAT scores are presumed to be “bright” and encouraged to consider the most selective colleges, with no regard to their academic performance in high school (57). Those students that were considered elite, but did not perform well their parents suggested to admission counselors that they were “not challenged” in high school (Syverson 57). According to Marchant and Paulson, race, parent education, and family income were found to account as much as 94% of the variance in scores among states (85:62). Students that belong to multiple disadvantage categories suffered greatly in the scoring criteria. The majority of students with socioeconomic disadvantages are discouraged from attending college. However, those that choose to further their education are more than likely the first ones in their family to attend college. Due to the large debate involving the admissions process using the SAT score, more colleges have adopted the SAT Optional policy because it is “consistent with their institutional mission and

Creativity is something that isn’t taught but learned through self-reflection. Creativity requires one to be able to express their thoughts through words or other various forms of expression. Creativity allows students to come up with practical solutions to everyday problems when applying them to real life situations. This teaches students that there may be several ways to solve a problem, but no solution is better than the other. “People who are creatively successful go beyond merely performing a job, becoming sources of new ideas, discoveries, and inventions” (Zagursky). Students that are more creative thinkers; instead of, standardized test takers may find it difficult to advance in class. According to Kim Zagursky, the Torrance test is the most widely used creativity test in the world and is the best predictor of creative achievement. The Torrance test, named for creator E. Paul Torrance, was developed in the late 1950s as a potential tool to individualize student instruction (Zagursky). Unfortunately, as time past creativity is becoming less among our students. There is a growing concern for the ability to form their own opinions about ideas they have read. The questions in the Sternberg’s Kaleidoscope policy was designed to measure creativity, ana¬lytical, practical, and wisdom-based skills and attitudes (DiMaria 55). Sternberg’s policy is currently being used at Oklahoma State