SAT Informative Essay

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.

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

A root cause analysis (RCA) is a “systematic approach to understanding the causes of an adverse event and identifying system flaws that can be corrected to prevent the error from happening again” (Huber & Ogrinc, 2010). The root cause analysis is used to determine why the problem occurred in the first place and to identify the cause of a problem using a specific set of steps (Mind Tools, n.d.). The RCA team which consists of interprofessionals who are knowledgeable of the issues and processes related to the incident and the people who are involved in the incident should be formed first before the RCA meeting takes place (Huber & Ogrinc, 2010). In the given scenario, the team includes the emergency department (ED)

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.

If this is true and GPA and school activity involvement are more important, then why is the SAT even considered? Brandon Busteed, an executive director of Gallup Education, ran a study including 2,586 superintendents around his area. According to his results, “...Only six percent of superintendents strongly agree that SAT and ACT scores are the best predictors of college success” (Brandon Busteed).  This shows that even educators feel that the SAT lacks a true purpose. How can any college determine a student's study habits, work ethic, or community involvement through a number? Jennifer Finney Boylan, a professor at Colby College, states, “The only way to measure students’ potential is to look at the complex portrait of their lives; what their schools are like; how they’ve done in their courses; what they’ve chosen to study; what progress they’ve made over time; how they’ve reacted to adversity” (Hambrick & Chabris). Although other factors are not ignored, including involvement and high school GPA, there is still immense pressure to do well on the SATs. Busteed states, “We’re not just overinvesting in standardized testing, we’re actually testing standardization. That is to say, most standardized tests are designed to have students come up with the same answers. We’re teaching them how to be similar, not different” (2015). This shows the negative effects that the SAT has on

“A student body must be composed of more than students who do well on a test. A standardized achievement test cannot measure intangibles such as a candidate's drive and individual determination” (Spiegler, 2013). Since the mid-1800s, high stakes testing has been an enormous part of American education. In the American education system, the lack of success have been held accountable on the increasing levels in poverty, universal use of high stakes testing, and quality of teachers. High stakes testing demonstrates bias against women and categories of socioeconomic variety. The SAT and ACT are unfair because wealthier citizens can afford tutors to assist students with test tips and higher scores on the exams. While in the process of applying for

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.

Standardized testing has lowered student achievement in the past several years. “The US has slipped from 18th in the world in math in 2002, to 31st place in 2009” (Walker). Something needs to be done, because a good education is how Americans succeed. American children are losing a battle with education because of these high stakes testing. The original purpose of the tests is “to ensure that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain high-quality education at minimum proficiency on State standards” (“Title I - Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged”). But, the test anxiety is becoming more prevalent, and is keeping students from performing their best (Kohn).

The issue of whether students should take standardized tests in order to get selected by top tier colleges has been a heated debate for quite some time now. In this essay, I will be examining whether standardized testing is a fair assessment of one's overall knowledge or achievement in one's educational career, and whether it has grounds to determine whether a person is qualified for higher educational opportunities. The SAT and ACT are two of the most known standardized tests which are used to measure and assess how well a student will do in his or her college life, however, these tests do not seem to be good determinants for one's academic intelligence and actually deter students from proper learning in the classroom by promoting a narrow

Since most SAT preparation courses are large businesses, their focus is primarily revolved around how much revenue they accumulate rather than the actual performance of their students. SAT preparation courses tend to sway parents by guaranteeing “high scores if you hand over upwards of one grand in fees (Lander).” Economically speaking, large educational organizations such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, and The College Board “have together created an industry with a 2013 revenue of $840.4 million dollars” through selling SAT study books, [releasing] online practice tests, and [offering] SAT study courses (Braverman).” Meanwhile, “private SAT tutors charge in excess of $100 per hour and classes from companies like Kaplan or Princeton Review run about $1,000 (Braverman).” The high cost of SAT test preparation puts students from the wealthier families at a massive advantage over poorer family. Richer families “have average test scores that are more than 300 points higher than students from the poorest families on average, according to the College Board (Braverman).” Although these statistics may not apply to every student, it follows a common trend and generalizes families based on economic class. If highly funded school had more advanced

From first grade to college, every student faces the nightmare: a test. The groans, rolled-back eyes and anxiety are all symptoms of a test-stressed generation. However, high school students are impacted the most because colleges do not look at test scores comprehensively. They only look at the high scores and ignore the low scores. Ever since the College Board was created in 1899, colleges have used the Board’s number one test to assess a high school student’s abilities. The colleges are only concerned with their reputation, not about the quality of a student’s academic strength.

According to the Glossary of Education Reform (http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing), high-stakes tests are designed to measure student achievement and to determine whether a student is intelligent enough to advance in education. These tests can come in many forms; although the SAT and ACT are considered the most common examples of high-stakes tests in America, any test used to make important decisions about a student can be considered a high-stakes test. For example, students giving oral reports in front of a faculty panel to receive their diplomas would be taking a high-stakes test. However, because these high-stakes tests can only be taken a few times at most, and because these tests are supposed to accurately represent a student’s ability in the classroom, many students report anxiety before these tests. Because higher levels of test anxiety may be associated with lower test scores, one question arises: is high-stakes testing truly the most accurate way to assess a student’s ability in the classroom? To answer this question, researchers have begun to explore an alternative to high-stakes testing: low-stakes testing. Low-stakes testing is also used to measure student achievement; however, these tests are not typically used to make important decisions about students. I argue that low-stakes testing should be implemented in schools in hopes of lessening student test anxiety and encouraging long-term retention of course material.

Although the SAT and other standardized tests say that their objective is to assess students on fair grounds, it clear is not an even playing field. Students that come from wealth families are able to afford help such as SAT prep-courses and/or even private, one-on-one, tutoring for the SAT thus greatly raising their marks. Srinivasa Ramanujan, for example, was unbelievably gifted at mathematics. He came from an impoverished family and could not attend school so had to teach himself math until the age of 17. At the age of 17, Srinivasa was offered a scholarship to a university which was later taken back because he had failed everything that was not math. Even without a formal education, he has made great contributions to the mathematic community. Now, although Srinivasa did not write the SAT test, he would have definitely failed the SAT test and would have been denied acceptance into any university due to the fact that he came from an impoverished family. Had the universities known of Srinivasa's unbelievable intellect, they would have definitely offered him a

More than 1.92 million students took the ACT in 2015 (Adams). Out of all of those students, only twenty-eight students met all four ACT benchmark scores indicating college readiness (2015). From 2011 to 2015 English, mathematics, and reading college readiness scores have dropped. More than 1.7 million students took the SAT in 2015. Scores on the SAT have gradually been decreasing. “…41.9 percent of recent high school graduates were on track to succeed in college—a figure that has not increased in five years” (Adams). Colleges focus so much on standardized testing , but the standardized tests only measure a small portion of one’s actual intellectual

The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college and university admissions in the United States. It was first introduced in 1926, and its name and scoring system have changed several times throughout the years. Many students around the world that want to pursue post-secondary institutions in the US make it a point to write the SAT at least once in their high school career to better their chances of getting a higher score. This test has three parts to it – one reading, writing and one math. In order to achieve the best score that they can possibly get and be placed in the highest possible percentile, students may decide to attend SAT preparation classes starting from the early years of High/Middle School. The unfortunate reality of these extra preparation courses is that they are quite expensive, and due to this, they mostly cater towards to higher or higher-middle class families. Courses that provide extra preparation such as Ivy Global are not very affordable to many families and so students. According to many statistics and news reports, the higher the test taker’s family income, the higher their scores in the test. This has been a topic of great controversy as we have grown in the modern society