Posted on 03/09/2014 6:08:40 PM PDT by prairiebreeze
The College Board is once again altering the SAT. According to the Washington Post, the SATs writers appear to be doing two things: changing what they test and making the test easier.
To me, it sounds as if the SAT will be made easier largely by changing what it tests. For example, the Post says that students will no longer be expected to know difficult, lesser-used vocabulary words and advanced mathematical concepts will disappear from the exam (my understanding is that truly advanced mathematical concepts do not appear on the current exam).
--snip--
No one who has been paying attention can doubt the main purpose behind the overhauling of the SAT. Members of certain minority groups perform far worse than average on the exam. This fact doesnt prevent most colleges from admitting pre-determined levels of minority students under their race-based preferential admissions systems. But the outcomes under these preferential systems (e.g., vast disparities between the average scores of admitted black and white students), unless concealed, subject the systems to much criticism
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
Its a roundabout way to put pressure on states that opted out of Common Core, said Whitney Neal, director of Grassroots at Freedom Works. If you are legislator from Virginia lets say, this will put pressure on you obtain material to make your district more appealing especially to homebuyers. SAT averages are often included in realtor information and high school success rate is always a selling point.
The man known as the "architect" of Common Core has used his new job running the College Board to deal a devastating blow to critics of the national education standards.
The SAT was revamped to align with the Common Core Standards Initiative, the broad language and math standards adopted by 45 states despite growing complaints that it will result in nationalized control of K-12 curriculum. The announcement on Tuesday was made by College Board President David Coleman, who before taking the post in 2012, played a key role in designing Common Core.
You can't teach high school geometry if the student has had no exposure to things like multiplication without a calculator.
surprise, surprise......
Of course. The 'Rat constituencies -- minorities, gays, and feminists (I accidentally wrote "faminists" -- hope I wasn't channeling something!!) have been running education policy for 40 years now.
Oh, and did I mention the Communists at the core of the educracy and in the NGO cadres?
Jeff Ludwig
March 9, 2014 at 10:25 pmMr. Coleman is a wicked, self-centered educator. Dr. Ravitch you dont know how much hurt is in my heart reading about the changes to be made in the SAT. After 50 years as an educator in colleges and secondary schools. His philosophical base is all wrong. The new SATs will discriminate against achievement, against math and language standards, and favor certain ethnic groups over others all points completely against SAT philosophy since its inception. It is a revolution that will produce even more confusion and chaos than we have now (is that possible?). Further, Mr. Coleman is one of those politically correct individuals who is always mouthing off about our becoming more internationally competitive in education. Yet, with further diluting of the SAT (the readjustment of the mean score a few years ago was the first diluting step), we shall actually be less competitive. I do not consider myself to be a maudlin or sentimental person, but when I read about the changes, tears literally came to my eyes. I have dedicated most of my life to the intellectual development of students of all races, religions, and creeds, and regardless of their economic standing. My own father was a blue collar worker, and I had the opportunity to obtain degrees from Ivy League institutions. Like Mr. Coleman, I am Jewish. I read about his bar mitzvah. I also was bar mitzvahed. What did he learn from being Jewish? I learned that you shall not bear false witness (its one of the Ten Commandments). Watering down a standardized test is bearing false witness. Its saying that your score is just as valid as someone elses who received the same score but answered more difficult questions. Is that not a lie no matter how sophisticated your defense of the change might purport to be?
Reply
Jeff Ludwig
March 9, 2014 at 10:34 pmOne other point . Mr. Colemans longtime association with Michelle Rhee is, as you clearly state, a red flag regarding the philosophical foundations of his educational goals. Michelle Rhee lacks educational values and ideals and sees education as a form of marketing rather than as a system of passing on knowledge and values. The teacher is not a mere facilitator, nor is he or she to be evaluated according to cost-benefit parameters. Rather, the teacher is the key to unlocking student achievement for a better future and for independent thinking. Further, Michelle Rhee and her ilk are reversing the time honored ideal of in loco parentis where the teachers being placed under the control of the master puppeteers of the Core Curriculum and administrators, teachers, students, and, lastly, parents are under the control of an impersonal system run by technocrats, software engineers, and arch-manipulators, not by loving adults who care about kids. So, to coin a phrase, we now have in loco educationensis where parents must submit to the values and premises of the schools, and the schools must submit (all personnel) to the values and premises of the master controllers. Its Platos Republic, Book VII, writ large. Or, eventually (tomorrow?) will be 1984 or Brave New World.
Source (cold link): http://dianeravitch.net/2012/05/19/who-is-david-coleman/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.