msmith
Posts:
65
Registered:
12/3/04
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Re: SAT
Posted:
Apr 2, 2001 10:14 PM
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Sunday, April 1, 2001
http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/04/01/front_page/SAT01.htm
Philadelphia Inquirer
A testing time for the SAT
By James M. O'Neill
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Stella Kim, 18, raves about her second semester
at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. But she would
never have applied there if not for an enticing
feature of the school's admissions process.
Dickinson doesn't require SAT scores.
Though she was an honors student at Marple Newtown High School, Kim
said, she doesn't handle standardized tests well. So when
she took the SAT, she became frazzled.
"I felt so much pressure," said Kim, no doubt reflecting the
sentiments of many of the 315,000 students who were taking the test
Saturday, one of seven national test dates this school year. "It's
been ingrained in our heads that you have to do well on the SAT
because it will determine which colleges you get into. And I'm Korean.
In the Asian community, parents are always comparing their
kids' test scores."
Kim was convinced that her combined score of about 1,000 would leave
her out of the running for selective Dickinson - until she
learned that the score wasn't even required.
Growing numbers of schools such as Dickinson say an SAT-optional
policy helps lure strong students who otherwise might shy
away because of lower SAT scores.
Not that everyone is signing up. The SAT has long provided admissions
officers with what they consider a valuable yardstick to help
put a student's high school grades in national perspective. Among
those who have no intention of making the scores optional are
Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania
State University.
But now that the head of the nation's largest state system of higher
education has weighed in against the SAT, critics of the test hope
more colleges will follow the lead of mavericks such as Dickinson.
For years, the SAT had endured attack from those who argue that the
test has a bias that favors students from higher-income families.
Then, in late February, the debate escalated when Richard C. Atkinson,
president of the 170,000-student University of California
system, gave a speech to hundreds of college presidents in which he
proposed that California drop the SAT.
Atkinson criticized what he sees as a growing American obsession with
the SAT - by parents, students and colleges, whose
admissions officers strive to boost the SAT scores of each new class,
to burnish their schools' images.
What crystallized his concern was a visit to an upscale private
school, where 12-year-old students were studying verbal analogies to
prepare for the SAT - a test they weren't likely to encounter for
years. "The time involved was not aimed at developing the students'
reading and writing abilities but rather their test-taking skills,"
Atkinson said. The three-hour SAT I has seven sections and measures
verbal and math reasoning abilities. The SAT II, which is administered
separately, consists of one-hour tests in specific subjects.
He concluded that "America's overemphasis on the SAT is compromising
our educational system."
Less focus on the SAT would let educators concentrate on improving the
curriculum and resource needs of the nation's elementary
and secondary schools, he argued.
Atkinson's proposal to drop the SAT I - and replace it with a test
linked to curricula - still is subject to approval by the university's
Board of Regents. But it has already sent shock waves through the
higher-education landscape.
"He adds a huge amount of clout," said Bob Schaeffer of FairTest, a
critic of the SAT. Last year, of the 6.9 million score reports that
students sent to colleges, 7.6 percent went to the California system.
"A decision by California to abandon the SAT could be enormous," said
Brian O'Reilly, executive director of the SAT program for
the College Board, which oversees the SAT. "There's a real concern
about the spillover effect it could have on other schools."
In addition, Atkinson's speech comes as affirmative action in college
admissions endures attack in many parts of the country.
California voters banned its use several years ago.
Since Latinos and African Americans generally score lower on the SAT
than whites, some colleges may jettison the SAT to ensure the
kind of student diversity that had been the aim of affirmative action.
"I think that's definitely one reason Atkinson made the proposal,"
said Drew Calandrella, vice president of student affairs at Rowan
University in Glassboro and a former California system admissions
official.
According to FairTest, nearly 400 of close to 2,000 four-year
institutions now have policies that make the SAT an option for at
least
some of their applicants.
Schools have done this for many reasons. Some private colleges,
struggling financially, need to fill classroom seats. Others want to
boost applications from groups that do less well on the SAT -
minorities and women.
Richard DiFeliciantonio, admissions director at Ursinus College in
Collegeville, said the school made the SAT optional three years
ago for students who rank in the top 10 percent of their high school
class.
"There's an incredibly stacked system in America against kids in
school districts without proper resources to prepare students for
college," he said. "I firmly believe that if you score in the top 10
percent, even if it's in the weakest public school, you deserve a
shot."
Several concerns drove Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., to make
SAT scores optional.
First was that some students, simply because of their parents'
relative wealth, can afford to take SAT prep courses. "That tilts an
already uneven playing field, and removes the sense of standardization
the test is supposed to provide," said Christopher
Hooker-Haring, Muhlenberg's admissions dean.
According to FairTest, students now spend more than $100 million
annually on test prep materials.
Joshua Brookstein, 20, a graduate of George Washington High in
Northeast Philadelphia, couldn't afford the pricey test prep
courses. Instead, he worked part time to pay for a $200 course offered
at Penn State. That improved his score marginally, to about
980.
"The test was excruciating," he said. "You know it means so much and
has such an impact on where you'll go to college. I knew the
average SAT scores of my top college choices, and I worried I wasn't
going to meet those goals."
Despite a 3.7 high school average and impressive extracurriculars - he
volunteered on local political campaigns and held the student
representative position on the Philadelphia school board - Brookstein
wasn't accepted at his top choices.
Muhlenberg, he said, gave him a chance with its SAT-optional policy.
The sophomore has a 3.7 average.
Muhlenberg officials were also concerned about the direct link between
family income and performance on the SAT.
"If we really care about diversity in our student population, these
ought to be alarming statistics," Hooker-Haring said.
The College Board, based in New York City, argues that the link
between income and test scores does not reflect a problem with the
SAT as much as with the nation's schools.
In response to Atkinson's speech, College Board president Gaston
Caperton said: "The key to students' success and opportunity is
not to scapegoat the SAT I, but to . . . confront the tough issues
that the standards-based school reform movement has been
addressing: radically improving curricula, teacher training, and
accountability."
Many selective schools show no signs that California's proposal will
alter their own reliance on the SAT.
Lee Stetson, director of admissions at Penn, said the Ivy League
school does not plan to make the SAT optional. "We justify its
continued use because it's just one measure that we consider," he
said.
Graham B. Spanier, the president of Penn State, argued that to abandon
the SAT "simply robs us of one important variable in making
increasingly difficult" admissions decisions.
In fact, as publicly funded universities grow in popularity among
students seeking a cheap alternative to private college, the big
publics are being deluged with applications.
When that occurs, admissions ranking formulas that include the SAT -
such as that currently employed by California - will become
even more vital to overburdened admissions offices, officials say.
Temple University has enjoyed a tremendous increase in applications in
recent years and hired more staff to handle the load.
As a result, Timm Rinehart, Temple's vice president for enrollment,
instituted a formula this year as a guideline to provide more
uniformity in admissions decisions. The formula allocates points for a
student's high school grades, SAT scores, application essay,
and other factors. The SAT represents about 35 percent of the formula
grade.
Like many admissions officials who continue to rely on the SAT,
Rinehart sees both its merits and weaknesses.
"The SAT represents about three hours in a kid's life," Rinehart said,
"and we don't want to give it more attention than we should.
But it's also not a whimsical test. The more outrageous claims that it
has a cultural bias I doubt. But it does use vocabulary that's
related to certain socioeconomic groups. That there's a class bias is
troubling.
"But until we come up with a better state or national test," he said,
"it's what we've got."
James M. O'Neill's e-mail address is joneill@phillynews.com.
© Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
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