How much can a college measure by SAT scores?

Mark Gleason

We asked our parent panelists this week: A recent news story

indicated that the University of California colleges accepted fewer

students with low SAT scores to the 2004 freshman class. As students

are getting prepared to hear from the colleges of their choice, how

much emphasis should a college place on SAT scores? Is it a good

measurement of the student’s achievement?

Let’s start with what SAT stands for. Originally the letters stood

for Scholastic Aptitude Test. The idea was that the SAT could

accurately predict a person’s innate intelligence. In 1994, the

College Board, which owns the SAT, backed away from the claim that

the test measures aptitude and began to call it the Standardized

Assessment Test. Eventually, even those words fell out of use. In

1996, the College Board sought to clear up the confusion in a press

release that declared, “SAT is not an initialism; it does not stand

for anything.” So there you have it -- the SAT stands for nothing.

The SAT measures one thing perfectly -- the ability to take the

SAT. It’s also a reasonable measure of general test-taking skills,

which are certainly useful in college. It doesn’t measure

achievement, other than achievement in SAT prep work. The SAT is

clung to in spite of its obvious flaws, because it still seems like a

standard. An “A” in geometry might mean one thing in a rural Maine

public school and another in a Chicago private prep academy, but a

1400 SAT score is theoretically the same in both places. As one

component of an evaluation the SAT has value, but it certainly cannot

be considered an accurate predictor of college success.

I’m a great example. I have the gift of being a fantastic

test-taker, in an idiot-savant sort of way. I had extremely high SAT

scores and almost aced the ACT. I don’t know why, but I can just look

at multiple-choice tests and “feel” what the answers are.

Unfortunately for me, there were no tests for likelihood of class

attendance or sense enough to leave a party prior to dawn on

important college days. Nor were there any that measured the ability

to get through college with minimal study and doing almost no work.

Eventually, I found my niche and actually put in a little effort,

which seems to be a key. I also found ways to leverage my testing

skills. I took a whole bunch of CLEP tests, the College Level

Examination Program, which are accepted at many schools as a way to

test out of courses and get college credit for them. I also just

tested out of other classes with a professor’s permission. All told,

I tested out of and received full credit for over two years worth of

college and moved right into the advanced courses I found more

interesting. The CLEP tests are still available and I highly

recommend them.

* MARK GLEASON is a

Costa Mesa parent.

How well one does on the SAT is not necessarily a prediction of

college success. My number four child is a social butterfly and did

not do well on her SAT, but was accepted to San Diego State anyway.

We celebrated her acceptance and guessed admissions must have looked

at other achievements and decided she had potential. We’re glad they

did. She transferred last year to Cal State Long Beach and will

graduate next year. So, consideration in addition to the test is a

good idea for some.

But now, for my youngest in 10th grade, there is a whole new SAT

world to learn about. The new SAT is a combined achievement test and

a test of reasoning skills according to the College Board website. It

includes an essay question, and questions ask what a student knows.

The top score is 2400 instead of 1600. There are new grammar and

algebra questions, but the many tricky analogy questions, which

assessed aptitude for college, are gone.

For the next few years, test takers will be guinea pigs as

colleges grapple with interpreting the results and deciding who gets

in.

Add to that the fact that a philosophical war continues about how

SAT scores should be used to admit minority students. Many of us

believe high standards for university admissions should be “color

blind,” but there are those who continue to push for continued

lowering of scores and inclusion of other criteria to help more

minority students get into college.

According to the College Board website and an Oct. 19, 2003 Time

magazine article, the changes behind the dramatic SAT revisions are

motivated mainly by the long-standing problem of inequality of

opportunity for underachieving minority students.

In redesigning the test, College Board President Gaston Caperton

may be starting a revolution in American education to force local

schools to change their curriculums to align with the SAT’s rigor and

content. Caperton, a former Democratic governor of West Virginia, may

accomplish what the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to do

locally -- raise curriculum standards.

But he may be creating another problem by forcing teachers to

teach to the test and cause a national curriculum taught to all

students, minority and majority alike, to emerge.

While leveling the field and helping minority students find a way

to success in education is a worthy goal, a national curriculum is a

dangerous idea, akin to establishing a national religion. For one

organization, made up of university elite, to control “correct”

questions and answers in our politically correct, multicultural age

is a bad idea and must be debated in the public square. But now that

the new SAT has been launched, it may be too late.

* WENDY LEECE is a Costa Mesa parent and former school board

member.