Posted on 07/02/2018 5:07:07 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The “test optional” movement has won its most high-profile convert in the University of Chicago, which announced last month that applicants to the school would no longer need to submit ACT or SAT scores.
The University of Chicago has become known in recent years for its commitment to academic rigor and resistance to coddling and group think. But in this decision it has increased the momentum of a fashionable but damaging ideology overtaking elite education: That standardized metrics of any kind are discriminatory and elitist, and that each student is so special that he or she can only be evaluated according to uniquely personal traits.
No test is perfect, but the ACT and SAT are powerful predictors of college performance. As psychology professors Nathan Kuncel and Paul Sackett wrote in The Wall Street Journal in March: “Longitudinal research demonstrates that standardized tests predict not just grades all the way through college but also the level of courses a student is likely to take.”
Standardized tests are especially important in a time of severe grade inflation, especially in more affluent high schools. That doesn’t mean students who don’t test well can’t succeed, or that students with high scores are guaranteed to graduate summa cum laude. But it’s clear scores are at least as valid a predictor of college performance as a students’ roster of carefully selected extracurricular activities or “personal essays,” which may be rewritten by tutors.
So what’s behind the campaign against standardized assessments? A University of Chicago spokeswoman says the test “may not reflect the full accomplishments and academic promise of a student.” This is true but could be said of any single part of a college application, including high school grades.
Grades may be the next metric to fall out of fashion.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
My guess is, the public skool bureaucrats and the powerful lobbies and activist groups associated with them and teachers want more influence about who is given access to higher education.
No “aptitude” is required to participate in an indoctrination program.
They then pay large sums to the fascist faculty and receive a certificate allowing access to employers who will be prohibited from discriminating on the basis of ability.
Then those institutions will fail to be elite. Intelligent hard working people do well no matter what college they attend.
It is ironic since the SAT and ACT were developed to ensure that intelligent lower class students could have the opportunity to attend elite institutions.
They’ll also accept you, if you’re a good rapper.
As with everything democrats do, it has nothing to do with diversity and everything to do with money. The”diverse students” generally come with free grant money which comes whether the fake student graduates or not. Schooling just has to have a building for remedial classes and a few totally fake majors so real students do not get disrupted. separate dorms are also helpful so the real students don’t have to be kept up all night by rap at volume 11 at 3am, and wa-la, instant free tax payer dollar machine
Because Asians do too well on it?
It’s kind of tough to fake it through engineering or medical school. Accounting takes hard work and focused attention. I think these schools are inventing other majors for less studios applicants.
Drop the entrance tests then use QUOTAS.
Ohhhh nooo, you may be smarter but we needs a percentage of black folk here.
After obammy, when i see a negro in a position of power i can’t help but wonder if they are a quota or they actually earned said position?
Admissions bureaucrats don’t like objective standards. They’re too easy to cite in admissions discrimination cases such as the Harvard Asian case currently. Remove objective measures and quota admissions are easier to get away with.
The death of excellence began decades ago. I saw many of signs back in the 70s.
Everyone need to stop participating in this educational sham. Costs have lost containment. Students borrow and go into tremendous debt with no way to pay it back. Tax payers are stuck holding the bag.
It’s not simply a money problem. As long as these institutions are supported, they will continue to turn out counter cultural warriors and other deviants who are hell bent on destroying our freedom.
For years all exams have been showing own thing, consistently, each time:
Chinese/Japanese score best
Whites next
then Hispanics
last Blacks
So, rather than admit the truth, they throw out the exams. Typical leftist action.
The University of Chicago has enough filters to find the truly exceptional and talented students, who apply to this school in huge numbers. Moreover, nearly all students will still take the SAT/ACT and University of Chicago admissions staff WILL look at the results.
As such UC’s decision isn’t important how it affects UC, rather, it is important how lesser schools view applicants - and most important, will further dumb-down and lower the standards of many High Schools who need to prepare students for college.
At birth just give the parents of their children a college diploma, end of story. The system is corrupt no need to earn anything just claim your color or origin
Excellence is Racist.
They also gets lots of money,
The reprobate left cant indoctrinate and empower their third worlders if they cant get them into the education system,
Anyone at all really believe that demonic obama was actually eligible for everything he was given by his NWO globalists handlers,
The reason is shrinking number of kids, (schools need to fill seats to stay in business.)
Uncle Sam will give any warm body a student loan, so these schools will put these kids into indentured servitude knowing that the diploma they issue will be worthless.
It’s called dumbing down, and just as the high school diploma no longer represents having learned anything, the college degree will soon go the same way. Employers will require rigid testing prior to even being considered for employment. How else can they be assured of getting someone that actually has the ability and will to earn their pay?
To keep the dream that everything's going to be all right alive, for just a little bit longer.
I will make three observations:
1. Several years ago, I worked with a guy, whose son was preparing for first year of college (well known Virginia school) and they forced him to take a pre-English and pre-math test. The pre-math test he failed, and they said he had to take at least one non-college-level prep-course that they offered ($400 range) before acceptance. This had nothing to do with ACT/SAT. My guess is that a quarter of all students arriving....had marginal math skills.
2. ACT/SAT are simply tests, and it really doesn’t mean that you are ready for college if you get decent scores. A fair number of commercial operations offer prep weekends for ACT/SAT, and they simply get you to a point of passing. You could be a total idiot with marginal skills, and the prep-course would help you get the scores to move on.
3. Finally, yeah....if you bring up black scores on ACT/SAT...it is a problem. You might have one out of ten black kids who score exceptionally well on the tests. I have read varying accounts, but most say a third of black kids on some path to college do lousy at ACT/SAT. A good counselor would take these kids and aim them toward community college, and work to improve from there.
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