I think there is PC at work in this summary of the results. This sentence is imprecise and misleading. The predictive power of standardized tests applies to high grades from poor performing school districts. The PC argument is that high grades alone should determine suitability for top university education. The corrolary is that race will be used to determine financial aid. There is no question that standardized tests predict differently for high performing schools than low performing schools. For high performing schools, standardized tests do not matter. For low performing schools, standardized tests indicate grade inflation and lower academic achievement. Dropping standardized tests removes the large difference between high performing and low performing schools. The effect is a backdoor quota for certain underperforming groups.
luckystarmom: I know that I had to work hard in college, and the people that didnt work hard didnt do well.
I think you're both right, to some extent. The SAT is a good measure of a student's background knowledge, but grades can be a good measure of a student's work ethic.
For success in college, I think students need a good basic academic skill set and a good work ethic.