By Meg Jalsevac
October 17, 2006, (LifeSiteNews) – An Oct. 7 ABC News report stated that “at a growing number of the country’s best liberal arts colleges … the SAT” college admissions test “has outlived its usefulness.” Further investigation of the claims in the story titled, “Beginning of the End of the SAT?”, appears to revealÂmore of a politically correct agenda to influence U.S. universities than an actual significant new trend.
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Contrary to the ABC report, LifeSiteNews .com found that only a small handful of liberal arts schools across the country have implemented SAT optional admission requirements. Even at those schools, the majority of students are still submitting their scores.Â
Almost all colleges require students, if they have taken the SAT (or the ACT, a similar standardized test accepted by schools across the nation), to submit their scores even if they will not be used in an admission decision. Even those schools that do not require a SAT score for admission still report their overall average SAT score in their own handbook and in the US News & World Report edition that publicizes SAT scores.Â
There are several reasons that schools widely publicize the fact that SAT scores are optional in their programs. Caren Scoropanos, spokesman for College Board, the not for profit association that instituted the SAT in an attempt to better match students with schools that would fit their needs, told LifeSiteNews.comÂthat the SAT optional policies of schools such as Bates College have become part of their history and reputation. It is essentially a marketing tool to make the institutions appear more ‘diverse’ and accepting. College Board maintains that over 70% of students are still submitting their scores even when submission is optional.Â
Scoropanos also says that students from diverse backgrounds can easily be offended by the implications of such a policy. Policies such as making SAT scores optional is basically telling students from diverse backgrounds that they are not smart enough to do well enough on the SAT. Scoropanos said that, instead of feeling privileged, students have been incensed by the implications of such a policy.Â
Scoropanos asserts that the SAT is not just to help the schools determine what students they will accept to their programs. The mission of the College Board is to enable students to find a school that will meet their needs as well as enabling schools to determine which students will succeed in their programs. Looking at the median SAT can give students valuable information as to the academic rigorousness of the individual schools that they are considering.Â
Christendom College, a liberal arts college in Virginia, requires an SAT or ACT score in their admission program. Tom McFadden, Director of Admissions at Christendom, says that they need the SAT precisely because they have students from such diverse educational backgrounds. McFadden states, “To put everyone in the same playing field we need to have some sort of standard by which to monitor their academic achievement. The SAT, although not the only standard by which applicants are accepted to Christendom, is a fair representation of the academic ability of our students.”Â
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Proponents for eliminating the SAT argue that only the elite rich can afford the expensive test prep courses that are on the market giving them the upper hand over students who cannot afford the prep courses. In fact, College Board does not recommend using any of the available prep courses. Scoropanos said that research indicates that the average student does 30 points better the second time they take the SAT because they are familiar with the format.Â
Scoropanos says that College Board recommends doing the ‘Question A Day’ from their website and taking the free practice tests also available on their website and from libraries across the country.Â
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, also known as Fair Test, is an organization that, according to their website, “works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.” Each year they list the schools that have SAT optional policies.Â
Of the 100’s of schools that are listed on the Fair Test website, only a small handful, less than 50, are strictly liberal arts schools – most are religiously affiliated (Bible colleges), art, music or technical programs. The schools that make up the majority of the list only offer the SAT optional choice under certain circumstances – if the applicant took Advanced Placement classes which are standardized across the country, if the applicant is over-seas, or, for some schools, if the applicant is considered an ‘in-state’ applicant. Less than 1% of schools across the country allow all applicants the option to not submit SAT scores.Â
In an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Dr. Janice Crouse, Senior Fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute at Concerned Women for America, sees the SAT optional policies as a real danger. In her experience as former Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, Dr. Crouse asserts that there already is grade inflation that, at this point, would be virtually impossible to turn around. Eliminating the SAT and allowing everyone to attend college with no regard to academic standards would lead to a diminishment in the value of a BA degree. It would become a norm – a requirement for any job instead of an achievement to aspire to.Â
Crouse says, “One of the important aspects of college is to learn to think and to evaluate carefully. When you have a basic hurdle that students have to get across then you force other schools to be more rigorous. And when you have students who are equally qualified in the classroom then they are forced to a higher level of achievement.”
Without the SAT, incoming freshmen are not held to an objective academic standard. Coddling the self esteem of those who might perform poorly on the SAT is replacing a proper respect for and responsibility to work to achieve education.Â
Instead of recruiting and accepting students that meet established academic standards, admission offices are exposing themselves to affirmative action scenarios and ultimately bowing to subjective guidelines for admission. This in turn leaves the entire institution vulnerable to a student body that is influenced by the politically correct philosophies of “diversity” rather than formed with the reality of the importance of objective knowledge and critical thought.ÂÂ
Richard Phelps authored a book entitled ‘Kill the Messenger: The War on Standardized Testing’. The book explores the truths and myths surrounding standardized tests and whether they are a valid gauge of academic ability. Phelps says, “Testing critics have been predicting the demise of college admission tests for decades. Meanwhile, the number of institutions using test scores in their admission process continues to climb.Â
The number of students taking the test continues to climb, the number of test scores submitted with applications continues to climb, and college admission counselors continue to rate test scores among the top three factors they consider.”
See the ABC News article:
Beginning of the End of the SAT?
https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2539985&page=1