Usefulness of SAT Test Is Debated in California

NY Times ^ | 11-17-01 | Jacques Steinberg

[Slyfox]

I don't get all the hand wringing about the SAT. It's almost as if these teachers don't want people pointing fingers at them for doing a 1/2 @$$ed job.

When I was in high school, I do not remember having to read a book or do a book report. I WROTE NO MAJOR PAPERS. We did, however, spend a lot of time 'rapping'. Parents were a particularly nasty subject. Seemed like no one liked theirs. I took the SAT and did not score well. My writing skills were pretty apalling. When I entered college I had to take remedial English. And I am not a stupid person. I made it through college but it was work.

Inadequate teachers have found a way to cover their backsides in CA. I hope they do not succeed nationwide.

[quebecois]

"The policy advocated by this guy in CA seems to be self-defeating"

I agree with you, but the lefties have a very screwy perspective. Their main concern is that the university faculty and students reflect the liberal's mathmatical ideal of "diveristy and multiculturalism". Academic excellence is a secondary consideration.

Since not all groups perform equally well on rigorous academic exercises (such as the SAT), the use of these exams hinders the attainment of utopia. Therefore, the exams must be eliminated. This is doubly important since the reactionary voters in Cal banned racial quotas at the universities.

Now that the campus leftists can no longer use overt racial quotas, the SAT's objective measurement of academic achievement has made it much harder to get the right student body and stay within the law.

The SAT is the lynchpin of the whole process. Remove it, and the criteria that remain can then be bent enough to get the correct race ratios without leaving any unsavory statistics around for lawsuits by disgruntled "privileged groups".

[mafree]

Maybe I'm in dreamland now, but I believe any student can get decent grades AND good scores on the SAT, if he or she makes an effort to be well-read and interested in learning both in and out of the classroom. Worked for me long ago, it can work for any kid today.

[untenured]

Is that the normal SAT test, or the scholastic aptitude SAT test? (Do the New York NYT Times reporters know what acronyms mean?)

Thanks for saving me the trouble. File it with "HIV virus" in the Unnecessarily Redundant file.

[mlocher]

it is true that the sat is merely one indicator of success, but it is an indicator.

the liberals once again want to change the rules, find a loop hole and do whatever it takes to push their agenda forward.

of course, it is clear that uc-berkeley has ignored the sat tests for years. look at all the idiots that make it through that school.