> So much for that common, popular notion that standardized tests do not predict anything of value.
To people with a particular agenda -- that society will be improved if equal outcomes are mandated -- I suppose standardized tests aren't "valuable" to them.
I am very grateful for the SAT. I wasn't a good student. I was unable to do any work outside of school because of a bad home (my brother did hours long "hand-clapping/stimming" and chanting rituals, my mother drank, and my father was violent). But I did well on the SAT -- enough to get a national merit scholarship and a scholarship from Hofstra University where I got my BA in Math in the early 80s.
If it wasn't for the SAT I don't know what I would have done. Standardized tests are the only answer, and I was very upset when I read of schools getting rid of using them for admission.
SATs are also a great predictor of a person's ability to complete college. That was one of their original uses. So without SATs, you'll get more people doing poorly, and more people with no degrees and a lot of debt. And if these people are members of what's considered an "under-represented minority" then there will be even more remedial action required elsewhere to fix the problem of the high failure rate (like giving them degrees anyway, etc).
To people with a particular agenda -- that society will be improved if equal outcomes are mandated -- I suppose standardized tests aren't "valuable" to them.
I am very grateful for the SAT. I wasn't a good student. I was unable to do any work outside of school because of a bad home (my brother did hours long "hand-clapping/stimming" and chanting rituals, my mother drank, and my father was violent). But I did well on the SAT -- enough to get a national merit scholarship and a scholarship from Hofstra University where I got my BA in Math in the early 80s.
If it wasn't for the SAT I don't know what I would have done. Standardized tests are the only answer, and I was very upset when I read of schools getting rid of using them for admission.
SATs are also a great predictor of a person's ability to complete college. That was one of their original uses. So without SATs, you'll get more people doing poorly, and more people with no degrees and a lot of debt. And if these people are members of what's considered an "under-represented minority" then there will be even more remedial action required elsewhere to fix the problem of the high failure rate (like giving them degrees anyway, etc).