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I think it says more about who is taking the tests than anything else.

When I was younger, it was not uncommon for marginal public schools in my area to have higher SAT scores than top private schools. That’s because only a small group of college-bound students at the public schools even took the SAT, while everybody at the private schools did.

I spoke to Princeton’s director of admissions many years ago, and she said that they relied more on the AP in assessing applicants than they did the SAT. This was because after the renorming of the SAT in 95, all their good applicants had nearly identical scores right at the top of the distribution.

Whereas before the renorming they could see a strong score as a 700 and a very strong score as a 750, now both those candidates will have a 790 and you cannot tell the difference by that measure.

On the AP though, there was still a noticeable difference between a candidate who got a bunch of 4’s and one who got a bunch of 5’s.

If the college board goes the same way with AP changes that they did with SAT, the effect will be the same. The median may be constant, but the tails will be much fatter. ALL the good students will get 5’s and colleges with highly selective admissions will again be unable to tell the good from the great students by any objective standard. They will then be left to admit students based on race quotas or whatever non-academic standard they choose.

Unfortunately, no.

I teach the victims after they are churned out of the mostly public schools.

When I was younger, it was not uncommon for marginal public schools in my area to have higher SAT scores than top private schools. That’s because only a small group of college-bound students at the public schools even took the SAT, while everybody at the private schools did.

The article told how they want to “re-norm” the tests so they all produce the same shaped curve of results. Your astute comment shows that this MUST be agenda-driven. The article mentioned no consideration of how the quality of test-takers would affect the shape of the curve for various tests.

This is similar to a UNDP staff assessment. I had to assess my staff according to Poor, Below/Meets/Exceeds Expectations, and Outstanding, with defined percentages for each level, even though there were various positions. I argued that if staff are properly recruited and trained EVERYONE could be Outstanding.