Posted on 04/18/2014 3:45:02 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Critics of the SAT and other standardized testing are disregarding the data.
The College Board—the standardized testing behemoth that develops and administers the SAT and other tests—has redesigned its flagship product again. Beginning in spring 2016, the writing section will be optional, the reading section will no longer test “obscure” vocabulary words, and the math section will put more emphasis on solving problems with real-world relevance. Overall, as the College Board explains on its website, “The redesigned SAT will more closely reflect the real work of college and career, where a flexible command of evidence—whether found in text or graphic [sic]—is more important than ever.”
A number of pressures may be behind this redesign. Perhaps it’s competition from the ACT, or fear that unless the SAT is made to seem more relevant, more colleges will go the way of Wake Forest, Brandeis, and Sarah Lawrence and join the “test optional admissions movement,” which already boasts several hundred members. Or maybe it’s the wave of bad press that standardized testing, in general, has received over the past few years.
Critics of standardized testing are grabbing this opportunity to take their best shot at the SAT. They make two main arguments. The first is simply that a person’s SAT score is essentially meaningless—that it says nothing about whether that person will go on to succeed in college. Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and longtime standardized testing critic, wrote in Time that the SAT “needs to be abandoned and replaced,” and added:
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
The SAT and ACT are essentially worthless.
The SAT is a solid predictor of college success. Most of the critics think it's anti-egalitarian (which it is) and "racist" (which it isn't), disregarding the fact that it does pretty much what it's supposed to do.
I base my opinion on my and my daughter's very extensive experience (we went to the same high school that emphasizes SATs, about 30 yrs apart). I also used to rent from a lady that worked for ETS, but she was quite close mouthed about the whole thing. :-)
They should just give a couple of yes no questions and be done with it.
What is that supposed to mean?
I hate to suggest this...but, if you took an average 7th grader and turned to give them this assignment:
1. Read the 100 best novels of all time.
2. Spend an entire year touring European historical sites.
3. Send them on a six month-long walk of Lewis and Clark’s trail, while reviewing an hour of basic physics each day.
4. Review the entire Civil War from 1776 onto the end of the war.
You’d likely have a better educated kid at age sixteen, than this cast of characters now completing four years of college.
I’ve learned a lot from watching Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel. I think this kind of learning tool would work in teaching history.
SAT marries Common Core.
1. Spend one week working at each of the 20 largest employers in the county.
You should understand, ma’am, that FR has its share of people who are high school drop-outs that resent those who graduated from college and those who are college graduates but who just get their jollies from denigrating commonly accepted knowledge. Timber Rattler sounds like one of the two.
In arguments with several of the self-proclaimed intelligentsia of the left it has become clear they are unable to do grade school math. No joke - a simple multiplication problem where you had to figure out from words what to put in a calculator was beyond their abilities.
So its no surprise they do not understand science, economics, etc. Yet to listen to them they will loudly tell you how much smarter they are then you and how you are wrong.
I’ve taken and passed both the SAT and the GRE, and in neither case did each have any bearing whatsoever on my college and post-graduate success. I just busted my butt to pass them, and that was about it. Worthless.
My guess is that Timber Rattler is one of the latter since he is aware of the existence of the ACT and SAT.
a favorite phrase among workers on the job site or factory floor......”and I told that engineer....”
Wrong. I've got a B.A., a B.S. and a M.A., and am doing quite well in my career.
The SAT, ACT, GRE, etc., are all worthless.
“I’ve taken and passed both the SAT and the GRE, and in neither case did each have any bearing whatsoever on my college and post-graduate success.”
There are no “passing grades” for the SAT and GRE. They are meant to show college or grad school aptitude. Not surprisingly those who score a 1600 do better than those who score 800.
That's not necessarily true. I've known 1600 scorers who washed out and also 800 or below scorers who did just fine.
The tests are subjective and only measure how well prospective college and grad students can take subjective tests.
The problem here is that, for most jobs, a quality high school diploma is sufficient that a person with one has the basic skills to be able to join the workforce. However, for whatever reason, we’ve reduced what one would learn, when you compare a 1950’s high school diploma, so that a person has to go to college to learn what was once learned by grade 12.
If we could bring back the general standards of the 1950’s for a diploma, I think we would be better off.
Perhaps you should read the article rather than using the title as a springboard to comment. This is a great article, well researched and aptly presented. I really had to set aside my expectations of Slate. If this is the kind of balanced article they are presenting they are doing a excellent job of presenting the facts palatable to the audience or not.
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