College President: SAT Is Part Hoax, Part Fraud

[Disir]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.

The blunt fact is that the SAT has never been a good predictor of academic achievement in college. High school grades adjusted to account for the curriculum and academic programs in the high school from which a student graduates are. The essential mechanism of the SAT, the multiple choice test question, is a bizarre relic of long outdated twentieth century social scientific assumptions and strategies. As every adult recognizes, knowing something or how to do something in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer from a set of possible answers (some of them intentionally misleading) put forward by faceless test designers who are rarely eminent experts. No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist, or physician—and certainly no scholar, and therefore no serious university faculty member—pursues his or her vocation by getting right answers from a set of prescribed alternatives that trivialize complexity and ambiguity.

And why do we remain addicted to the College Board’s near monopoly on tests? Why do they have an undue influence on college placement? These tests actually violate the basic justification for tests. First, despite the changes, these tests remain divorced from what is taught in high school and what ought to be taught in high school. Second, the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong and why. No baseball coach would train a team by accumulating an aggregate comparative numerical score of errors and well executed plays by each player, rating them, and then send them the results weeks later. When an error is committed it is immediately noted; the reasons are explained and the coach, at a moment in time close to the event, seeks to train the player how not to do it again.

SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

 

[Esmeralda]

Standardized testing in any arena for any reason is not an adequate way of ascertaining knowledge and intelligence. It is not a way of measuring how much someone knows and what they can do with that knowledge. It is not an adequate way of measuring learning and critical thinking skills. It is not an adequate way of measuring academic potential or life potential. It is not an adequate way of measuring creativity.

 

[jillian]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.

The blunt fact is that the SAT has never been a good predictor of academic achievement in college. High school grades adjusted to account for the curriculum and academic programs in the high school from which a student graduates are. The essential mechanism of the SAT, the multiple choice test question, is a bizarre relic of long outdated twentieth century social scientific assumptions and strategies. As every adult recognizes, knowing something or how to do something in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer from a set of possible answers (some of them intentionally misleading) put forward by faceless test designers who are rarely eminent experts. No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist, or physician—and certainly no scholar, and therefore no serious university faculty member—pursues his or her vocation by getting right answers from a set of prescribed alternatives that trivialize complexity and ambiguity.

And why do we remain addicted to the College Board’s near monopoly on tests? Why do they have an undue influence on college placement? These tests actually violate the basic justification for tests. First, despite the changes, these tests remain divorced from what is taught in high school and what ought to be taught in high school. Second, the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong and why. No baseball coach would train a team by accumulating an aggregate comparative numerical score of errors and well executed plays by each player, rating them, and then send them the results weeks later. When an error is committed it is immediately noted; the reasons are explained and the coach, at a moment in time close to the event, seeks to train the player how not to do it again.

SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

i don't see the word "hoax" or "fraud". i do agree that the SAT's probably aren't indicative of anything useful.

But then again, I never figured out why there was math on my LSAT.

 

[Disir]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.

The blunt fact is that the SAT has never been a good predictor of academic achievement in college. High school grades adjusted to account for the curriculum and academic programs in the high school from which a student graduates are. The essential mechanism of the SAT, the multiple choice test question, is a bizarre relic of long outdated twentieth century social scientific assumptions and strategies. As every adult recognizes, knowing something or how to do something in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer from a set of possible answers (some of them intentionally misleading) put forward by faceless test designers who are rarely eminent experts. No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist, or physician—and certainly no scholar, and therefore no serious university faculty member—pursues his or her vocation by getting right answers from a set of prescribed alternatives that trivialize complexity and ambiguity.

And why do we remain addicted to the College Board’s near monopoly on tests? Why do they have an undue influence on college placement? These tests actually violate the basic justification for tests. First, despite the changes, these tests remain divorced from what is taught in high school and what ought to be taught in high school. Second, the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong and why. No baseball coach would train a team by accumulating an aggregate comparative numerical score of errors and well executed plays by each player, rating them, and then send them the results weeks later. When an error is committed it is immediately noted; the reasons are explained and the coach, at a moment in time close to the event, seeks to train the player how not to do it again.

SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

i don't see the word "hoax" or "fraud". i do agree that the SAT's probably aren't indicative of anything useful.

But then again, I never figured out why there was math on my LSAT.

But...that was the title of it this morning when I posted it.
I have it still up so before I hit refresh this is what it looked like:
Opinion Education
College President: SAT Is Part Hoax, Part Fraud

Leon Botstein

March 7, 2014

And after hitting refresh-it's still the title.

 

[martybegan]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.

The blunt fact is that the SAT has never been a good predictor of academic achievement in college. High school grades adjusted to account for the curriculum and academic programs in the high school from which a student graduates are. The essential mechanism of the SAT, the multiple choice test question, is a bizarre relic of long outdated twentieth century social scientific assumptions and strategies. As every adult recognizes, knowing something or how to do something in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer from a set of possible answers (some of them intentionally misleading) put forward by faceless test designers who are rarely eminent experts. No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist, or physician—and certainly no scholar, and therefore no serious university faculty member—pursues his or her vocation by getting right answers from a set of prescribed alternatives that trivialize complexity and ambiguity.

And why do we remain addicted to the College Board’s near monopoly on tests? Why do they have an undue influence on college placement? These tests actually violate the basic justification for tests. First, despite the changes, these tests remain divorced from what is taught in high school and what ought to be taught in high school. Second, the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong and why. No baseball coach would train a team by accumulating an aggregate comparative numerical score of errors and well executed plays by each player, rating them, and then send them the results weeks later. When an error is committed it is immediately noted; the reasons are explained and the coach, at a moment in time close to the event, seeks to train the player how not to do it again.

SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

"Normalizing" individual grades leads to so much potential for rigging and grade inflation that you will get people admitted base on how good their schools can cook the books.

The SAT may not be perfect, but it is a level playing field. It is the student only that enters the testing area. Maybe it can be modified, but an entrance test is part of a fair method of selecting college applicants.

 

[Disir]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.

The blunt fact is that the SAT has never been a good predictor of academic achievement in college. High school grades adjusted to account for the curriculum and academic programs in the high school from which a student graduates are. The essential mechanism of the SAT, the multiple choice test question, is a bizarre relic of long outdated twentieth century social scientific assumptions and strategies. As every adult recognizes, knowing something or how to do something in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer from a set of possible answers (some of them intentionally misleading) put forward by faceless test designers who are rarely eminent experts. No scientist, engineer, writer, psychologist, artist, or physician—and certainly no scholar, and therefore no serious university faculty member—pursues his or her vocation by getting right answers from a set of prescribed alternatives that trivialize complexity and ambiguity.

And why do we remain addicted to the College Board’s near monopoly on tests? Why do they have an undue influence on college placement? These tests actually violate the basic justification for tests. First, despite the changes, these tests remain divorced from what is taught in high school and what ought to be taught in high school. Second, the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong and why. No baseball coach would train a team by accumulating an aggregate comparative numerical score of errors and well executed plays by each player, rating them, and then send them the results weeks later. When an error is committed it is immediately noted; the reasons are explained and the coach, at a moment in time close to the event, seeks to train the player how not to do it again.

SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

"Normalizing" individual grades leads to so much potential for rigging and grade inflation that you will get people admitted base on how good their schools can cook the books.

The SAT may not be perfect, but it is a level playing field. It is the student only that enters the testing area. Maybe it can be modified, but an entrance test is part of a fair method of selecting college applicants.

The SAT doesn't do anything. That's the problem. I'd say an entrance test is absolutely fair. This ain't it. It's competition ACT doesn't do anything either.

 

[editec]

I believe that SATs are the world's best indicator of how one can do on an SAT test.

 

[martybegan]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.



SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

"Normalizing" individual grades leads to so much potential for rigging and grade inflation that you will get people admitted base on how good their schools can cook the books.

The SAT may not be perfect, but it is a level playing field. It is the student only that enters the testing area. Maybe it can be modified, but an entrance test is part of a fair method of selecting college applicants.

The SAT doesn't do anything. That's the problem. I'd say an entrance test is absolutely fair. This ain't it. It's competition ACT doesn't do anything either.

How does it not do anything? Everyone takes the same test, country-wide.

 

[martybegan]

I believe that SATs are the world's best indicator of how one can do on an SAT test.

It still a level playing field, which is much better than going soley by grades. Considering the richer districts would probably be better at cooking the books, removing a standardized test as an entry category would probably HURT diversity in the application pool.

 

[Disir]

"Normalizing" individual grades leads to so much potential for rigging and grade inflation that you will get people admitted base on how good their schools can cook the books.

The SAT may not be perfect, but it is a level playing field. It is the student only that enters the testing area. Maybe it can be modified, but an entrance test is part of a fair method of selecting college applicants.

The SAT doesn't do anything. That's the problem. I'd say an entrance test is absolutely fair. This ain't it. It's competition ACT doesn't do anything either.

How does it not do anything? Everyone takes the same test, country-wide.

What is it used for? What is it supposed to demonstrate?

 

[aplcr0331]

So people who score high on the SAT get bad grades and people who score low on the SAT get good grades? What does the SAT actually show? Does it predict anything? If you take a large population and test it, then measure that populations outcomes we don't see any relationships between SAT scores and any sort of success?

 

[jillian]

Another interesting opinion piece that came out over the weekend.



SAT Changes: Bard College President: We Need a New Entrance Exam - TIME

i don't see the word "hoax" or "fraud". i do agree that the SAT's probably aren't indicative of anything useful.

But then again, I never figured out why there was math on my LSAT.

But...that was the title of it this morning when I posted it.
I have it still up so before I hit refresh this is what it looked like:
Opinion Education
College President: SAT Is Part Hoax, Part Fraud

Leon Botstein

March 7, 2014

And after hitting refresh-it's still the title.

it was the title....

it shouldn't be.

just saying.

 

[martybegan]

The SAT doesn't do anything. That's the problem. I'd say an entrance test is absolutely fair. This ain't it. It's competition ACT doesn't do anything either.

How does it not do anything? Everyone takes the same test, country-wide.

What is it used for? What is it supposed to demonstrate?

It's used as a guide to weeding through college applicants. It adds a non-source biased reference to a students overall academic ability.

I really don't get people's hatred of standardized testing. The whole idea is to get a general comparison of a group of people vs. the same set of questions.

 

[Disir]

So people who score high on the SAT get bad grades and people who score low on the SAT get good grades? What does the SAT actually show? Does it predict anything? If you take a large population and test it, then measure that populations outcomes we don't see any relationships between SAT scores and any sort of success?

Exactly.

 

[Disir]

How does it not do anything? Everyone takes the same test, country-wide.

What is it used for? What is it supposed to demonstrate?

It's used as a guide to weeding through college applicants. It adds a non-source biased reference to a students overall academic ability.

I really don't get people's hatred of standardized testing. The whole idea is to get a general comparison of a group of people vs. the same set of questions/b.

But, it doesn't predict college success accurately and this is what it is supposed to do. I don't get defending something that doesn't work. There are over 800 colleges that no longer use them. And counting.

 

[aplcr0331]

So people who score high on the SAT get bad grades and people who score low on the SAT get good grades? What does the SAT actually show? Does it predict anything? If you take a large population and test it, then measure that populations outcomes we don't see any relationships between SAT scores and any sort of success?

Exactly.

Oh. Who's doing the measuring?

 

[martybegan]

What is it used for? What is it supposed to demonstrate?

It's used as a guide to weeding through college applicants. It adds a non-source biased reference to a students overall academic ability.

I really don't get people's hatred of standardized testing. The whole idea is to get a general comparison of a group of people vs. the same set of questions/b.

But, it doesn't predict college success accurately and this is what it is supposed to do. I don't get defending something that doesn't work. There are over 800 colleges that no longer use them. And counting.

College success is different than getting into college. One has to remember one of the biggest issues with college success is formerly well supervised 18 year olds turning into effectively unsupervised 18 year olds.

There has to be some non-biased source of information for colleges to figure out aptitude. Going with grades only/after school stuff leads to schools being able to pad kid's resumes, and covertly advertising the fact they do it.

So you get less merit, and more cronyism/money talking.

 

[DGS49]

I would like to propose a new law. Without all the customary legal mumbo-jumbo, the law would require that anyone publishing an article or book debunking SAT, ACT or IQ test scores must publish his own scores at the top of the article.

This simple law would eliminate most of these articles, since most of them are just people who are still pissed off, decades after the fact, about their embarrassing test scores.

Anyone who has taken a well-written multiple choice test knows that they can be devilishly good at ascertaining whether you know the subject or not. I have taken the Multi-State Bar exam, the Certified Professional Contract Manager exam, and many, many other multiple-choice tests in connection with my employment. Most of them were effective in weeding out those who didn't know the subject. I suspect CPA exams, medical boards, pharmacy boards, PE tests, and other professional-qualification exams are heavily laden with multiple-choice questions, and few people complain that they are not valid.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that some people - for reasons unknown - do not do well under time-constraints when completing a test, and particularly a multiple-choice test. Those people may see test scores that do not truly reflect their mastery of the subject material, and become resentful or even critical of the test itself (like the quoted bureaucrat above). Note that there is no converse factoid, despite many peoples' desire to discount high test scores for people they do not like. It is not possible to do "better than your best" simply because you are "good at taking tests."

99% of the colleges in the country place a high value on SAT's and similar tests (ACT, others?) BECAUSE THEY CAN HAVE CONSIDERABLE VALUE IN ASCERTAINING HOW WELL PREPARED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE FOR COLLEGE. Do they tell the whole picture? No. Can people with low scores do well in college? Of course. Do some people with great scores do poorly in college? Certainly. But that doesn't change the fact that someone with 700+ on all of the tests CAN BE a high-honors grad.

And let's be clear: People with mediocre SAT's are not going to be graduating with high honors in engineering, pre-med, or the hard sciences. They are going to be majoring in the soft subjects that don't require great intellectual skills.

 

[Moonglow]

I liked it before entrance exams...If you had the dough you could go to college...

 

[Roudy]

The SAT is designed to separate students with different abilities. It is not a test for everyone to do well in. Doing good in the SAT means that a student has mastered the ability to take the SAT alone, it is also a good indicator of a student's academic strengths, discipline, motivation, studying habits, etc. which are are important to have as a successful college student. SAT prep is now a multi million dollar industry with people paying as much as $300 an hour to tutors and organizations. The reason for the change is to simply make it harder to prep, as all the old practice tests become useless, and generally making the test more relevant to information that a student would actually use.