The College Board Should Be Abolished The SAT was first administered in 1926, and the acronym originally stood for “Scholastic Aptitude Test.” However, once critics noted that “success on the test demonstrated an aptitude for doing well on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and little else,” the College Board dropped the meaning behind the acronym (Nelson). Now, the “SAT” just means, well, the SAT. Since the beginning of the SAT, The College Board has expanded its role in the standardized testing industry, and now also administers AP Tests and SAT Subject tests. Although some people believe that this “non-profit” organization is helpful to students and their families, The College Board should be abolished because it is corrupt, it does not accomplish …show more content…
The intended purpose of the College Board’s SAT is to show the academic potential of a student to colleges. However, this intent is not fulfilled, and the test favors those of higher income brackets. In fact, “About 30 percent of those who took the SAT were black, Hispanic or American Indian, groups whose scores have stubbornly remained lower than those of whites and Asians.” (The International Herald Tribune). Because those which are typically in lower income brackets have been statistically proven to average lower scores on the SAT, the test does not accomplish its intended purpose. If the test truly showed the academic potential of students to colleges, it would not be discriminatory based on any factors besides those relevant to college admissions, such as intelligence and passion. It is very difficult to effectively showcase a student’s potential with standardized tests, because they “focus only on cognitive dimensions, ignoring many other qualities that are essential to student success” (NCTE). These cognitive dimensions are very limited in scope, and are not effective in portraying all of the skills that a student may have. On the SAT, these focuses are reading, writing, and math. On the ACT, these focuses are english, math, reading, and science. Either way, a very narrow field of subjects is tested (even more narrow on the SAT), and even then, only a small …show more content…
The SAT is seen as a gateway to college. At top tier universities, it gets your foot in the door. According to Goral, “The elite universities that can point to this exam and say that if a student doesn't score X, Y and Z on it, then we're not going to consider them.” Many students believe that these tests are the only obstacle left on the way to their dream colleges, so they study for hours on end, hoping for a great performance on this test. Many of these students even cannot wait once they’ve tested to see their scores. This causes an endless cycle of stress between studying for one test, waiting for scores, and then studying for the next test. Not only are these hard working students stressed because of standardized testing, but their teachers are too. These teachers spend valuable class time drilling the basic fundamentals involved with standardized testing into their students, because they are necessary for success on standardized tests. However, the fundamentals can only help so much on these tests, and the rest of the work is up to the student. Teachers are often then evaluated based on their students’ performances, causing them to be stressed. According to W. James Popham, “the better the job that teachers do in teaching important knowledge and/or skills, the less likely it is that there will be items on a standardized achievement test measuring such knowledge
Imagine a test capable of making or breaking a student's chances of getting into his or her dream college. Imagine a test score that can be easily influenced, but only through thousands of dollars worth of coaching. Now imagine that same test but biased towards certain crowds of students while also being incapable of accurately predicting their futures. Is this the test you want for colleges to use in order to distinguish students? This is the SAT—famous for the unnecessary pressure it presents to students as well as the unfair disadvantages it presents to many others. Since these SAT scores are extremely artificial, SAT tests are not an accurate predictor for future success.
Each year high school students from around the country take the SAT or ACT. The ACT and SAT are both standardized test used by colleges to determine the knowledge of a student and predict what their performance will be in their first year of college. An immense amount of pressure is put on student to receive certain scores in order to obtain scholarships and admission into college. Even just one point on a student’s score can determine if they will be accepted into their dream college. However, the results from standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT, are often inaccurate. Because of this one’s knowledge and academic ability are misrepresented, and they are denied certain opportunities. Standardized tests such as the ACT and the SAT
Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.
Schools need to find ways to evaluate students which do not discriminate on race, gender, or economic status. By using tests like the ACT and SAT, colleges are unintentionally showing favoritism to groups like Caucasians, males, and the upper class. "Standardized tests are biased in favor of those whose culture and upbringing most closely resembles that of the test makers- typically, white middle-class males" (Facts). FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing did a study
In 2011, Jen Wang was finishing up her freshman year at Connecticut College. As a young girl growing up in New Jersey, Jen took her first SAT when she was in the sixth grade, long before other students her age would even start to think about college. Jen said that test preparations for standardized tests, like the SAT, took up most of her free time that could have been used to do other things (Billy). The SAT’s early intent was to open doors of higher education to students without traditional credentials, but now this test is held at high esteem, the biggest indicator of college success (Mulugetta). Although standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT are used to “level the playing field” for students across the country, these tests add little
For many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.
The College Board and ACT nonprofit organizations, known for developing and administering the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) assessment respectively, represents higher education’s widely accepted college readiness determinant for prospective students. These examinations empirically measure a student’s grasp of reading, writing, and mathematics – subjects taught every day in high school classrooms. As a result, they typically constitute a significant proportion of the total entrance requirements for prospective students to relevant institutions of higher learning and denote a serious endeavor unto itself. Students commonly take one or both of these examinations during their junior or senior year of high school as dictated by an institution’s administrative guidelines, although most colleges now allow either test as part of their proprietary admission formulas. And since it turns out there exists subtle differences in the tests themselves, students should review research concluding certain individuals may be better candidates for maximizing performance on one examination versus another.
Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.
By now, everyone has come to the conclusion that SAT is a flawed system. The test is designed to determine the future of high school students. Its job is to capture a snapshot of what a student has learned over the course of their academic career. Unfortunately, this is not what happens. Instead of treating a student’s score as just a snapshot, colleges treat a student’s score as their complete academic intelligence. What the system fails to realize is that not all students are good test takers. A student could study for weeks, but when the curator says “You may begin” their mind goes blank. Furthermore, the education system has become too dependant on the SAT to calculate a student’s intelligence. The real emphasis should be on the student’s GPA, essays, extracurriculars, volunteer work, and how much they challenged themselves. Focusing on these aspects allows the college to review an applicant’s work ethic.
If you are considering enrolling for college in the United States, then chances are that you will have to take the SAT exam. This is a standardized exam, administered to all people considering joining college in a given year. Their respective scores in the exam are deemed to be indicative of their respective capabilities to cope with college work, and to benefit from college education. But many times, SAT scores have relevance beyond college entry: as an interview question, for instance, some employers have been known to ask prospective employees about their SAT scores. But even assuming that the relevance of SAT scores ends at college entry, we all know how much of a difference, in terms of life opportunities, the college one attends makes.
The issue with the SAT test is a dilemma when it comes to certain subgroups in this country, even though it seems to maintain its effectiveness for others depending upon race, ethnicity, and gender. Colleges and universities administrators, testing agencies and psychometricians should reassess the use of the SAT’s as the only means of admissions and develop new criteria for admissions for higher education.
The SAT is unfair to students of color due to its racist background. Originally this test had been created by Carl Brigham (Prois). This man believed that whites had superior traits to other races across the world. By making this test he believed it proved
Low scores are equivalent to fewer opportunities, and high scores tend to open more doors. Tests like the SAT are not effective because they are unfair to people with certain disadvantaged backgrounds, overly emphasized in the admission process, and do
SAT is one of the most important of any teenager in high school. The SAT determines the fields of college admission and higher education. Moderate of student get into this $500 dollars program for 5 years to study for the SAT. This program helps a student get 1600 on the SAT. That 1600 includes math, reading, and writing. If you get a 800 on everything, then you might just get a scholarship. However, I believe that the SAT is not an accurate valid test for students. Many students have the knowledge to pass, but can also stress about it so much that it messes with them during the test. Also, I don’t think the SAT should affect whether you go into a good college or not. Yet, many student believe that this is their only shoot into
Supporters of the test may state it is a good base or “key” to use and gage a student when looking to gauge their academic skill level. Swing to the other side and it’s unsurprisingly easy to find the reasons to oppose the test. Reasons include that the test prevents some students from unlocking their full academic potential due to their lack of easily available resources. Lack of these resources could be due to financial situations or a person’s ethnic background. Studies show the SAT cannot predict a student’s performance in secondary school. These studies examine and exhibit to us (the viewer) that the SAT lacks in showing a student’s true qualities and work ethic. Segregating students based on a test prevents a student from possibly unlocking their full potential. Students judged by their SAT are not the only ones missing out on potential academic success, the future of America loses the chance to further educate the next generation of potential