Anyone familiar with my frustration with the flaws of the PSAT being used to identify elite students who qualify for large scholarships as National Merit Scholars, and the damaging effects of the College Board high volume AP classes, might be surprised that I would come out in defense of the SAT. But like most things in life, the issue of college entrance exams – part of the bigger standardized testing debate – is not black and white. There are pros and cons to the SAT, as well as the ACT and other standardized tests. There are some very good arguments for keeping the SAT, including one that I haven’t seen discussed – a way in which the SAT and ACT are effective at identifying smart students that might otherwise be overlooked. I’ll use my family’s personal experiences to illustrate this point.
In spite of all their drawbacks, the usefulness of standardized college admission tests was brought to my attention again while listening to a recent KERA Think podcast – What Does The SAT Really Measure? | Think
Arguments against the SAT – con
There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the SAT. One of the main criticisms is that because of private coaching, scores are merely a reflection of socioeconomic status. Personally, I have a lot of mixed feelings about the SAT. The stress and anxiety it causes to get to the top academically to be admitted to a “good” college or university can be life crippling. (You can read more of my research and thoughts on education on my blog High School, College, Success!) In addition, the College Board that administers the SAT also runs AP classes and sells the duplicating subject tests and AP tests.
The podcast, has some really interesting information about how an elite SAT prep tutoring service coaches students not in material, as you might expect, but in how to manage the pressures and nerves of being in high pressure environments at school and at home.
Taking the SAT is certainly a part of that high pressure environment with high expectations for high scores so you can get into a “good” college or university. And that’s one of their negative aspects.
However, there is a good side to the SAT that my family has personally experienced that I haven’t heard anybody talk about.
Arguments for Keeping the SAT – pro
I attended a rural Texas public high school outside a small town that was exceptionally academic among schools of it’s type. Among a strong academic competition team, there were often one to two national merit scholars per class (as identified by the PSAT.) But this would be in a class of 150 to 200 students, where less than a dozen students from each class would go directly into a 4-year college or university. So I would imagine that our high school was not well known to most college admissions officers. Even being at the top of the class might not stand out on college application without an SAT or ACT score.
Even more extreme, when my husband’s family moved, his older sister spent her senior year a public rural high school outside of an even smaller town, that was less academically accomplished than my school was. After she applied to college, she actually got a call from one of the state’s flagship university admissions offices to confirm her application. They had never seen an SAT score from her high school even approaching as high as hers. If she had not had an SAT score to submit would her application have been over-looked simply because of her high school? (I also don’t think she was eligible for class ranking because of transferring her senior year, if that would have even helped her at that school.)
So what I’m saying here is that the SAT and ACT standardized college entrance exames can be an equalizer that highlights exceptional students in non-exceptional circumstances. However, both of these accounts happened over 30 years ago. Is the same still true?
Can the SAT and ACT identify students who should be admitted to a college or university?
In contrast to their parents, our own kids went to a highly competitive academic public high school. Because of our emphasis when choosing classes on interests and the ability to use college credit, we steered our kids away from taking AP classes simply for the sake of the bump it would give their GPA.
At our school, AP classes add 15 points onto your grade on a 100 point scale. Dual credit classes only add 10 points to your grade, the same level as PreAP classes. If you follow your interests and take any non-AP or special interest classes, including classes in special topics such as Dystopian Literature, no extra points are added. In addition, any electives you take that might be more challenging, such as computer programming, do not figure in your class rank GPA.
Ironically, the GPA bump given for AP classes, by many schools, is a discrepancy caused by the college board’s push of AP classes as the standard of excellence. (And the more AP classes offered at a school, the more money they make. And remember, the College Board also administers the PSAT and the SAT.) As a result, our kids – two of whom were in the top number 10 of their graduating eighth grade class – were not in the top 5% of their high school class by weighted-GPA rank, and at some points during their high school career, not in the top 10% of their class.
However, in spite of their class ranks, their performances on either the PSAT or ACT standardized college admission tests allowed them to stand out on their college applications.
As further evidence that standardized college admission scores can identify strong students who would do well in college, in the podcast they reference two studies aimed at getting more disadvantaged high achievers to apply to elite schools. The indication is that standardized tests were used to identify high achievers.
It is well worth your time to listen to the entire podcast – What Does The SAT Really Measure? | Think . The author of The Years that Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, Paul Tuff, has a uniquely balanced view on the pros and cons of attending and elite college. It has given me many things to think about with my own kids.
Paul Tuff has another very interesting book, How Children Succeed. You can read my thoughts and views on the book How Children Succeed starting with my post, 11 Reasons your high-achieving student will fail.
You can read more of my research and thoughts on education on my blog High School, College, Success!