
An Ultra-Selective University Just Dropped the ACT/SAT. So What? - yasp
https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Ultra-Selective-University/243678
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gourial
We should be moving more towards standardized tests, not moving away.

They are one of the most background-blind ways of establishing student
intelligence and creativity, as they have been shown in studies to measure the
ephemeral 'g' value representing general intelligence very well.

Now, critics say that impoverished students do worse on the SAT than students
from wealthy families, but the fact is that study resources for the SAT exist
for free on the internet as well as for low cost in the form of study manuals.
Poor students from certain communities probably don't have the same
encouragement to study for the SAT as other groups, especially wealthy
families. Fortunately, cultivating a culture which encourages study for
standardized tests in theory costs nothing.

This puts poor students on a much more level playing field than if we base
elite college admissions on things like high school quality, which is already
a huge determinant of admissions at top colleges. Unfortunately students can't
use free online resources to get into top private high schools. Doing so
requires their parents to be well off enough to afford the high cost.

Judging students based on grades is also very difficult because of grade
inflation, which obscures things.

We will never be able to fully eliminate the influence of wealth on college
admissions, but standardized tests offer the best conceivable way to fairly
judge students of all backgrounds.

~~~
eesmith
I'm most curious about the evidence for a relationship between SAT and
creativity which is stronger than other correlations, like for socioeconomic
background or quality of high school courses.

Since you agree that SAT test prep improves one's SAT, and you argue that SAT
is predictive of creativity, does that mean that SAT test prep makes one more
creative? Or am I misinterpreting?

When you write "Poor students from certain communities", which 'certain
communities' do you mean?

Because I think you mean the community I was brought up in.

I grew up the 3rd or 4th generation descendant of northern European emigrants
to North American. By the US census definition I am "white". My parents were
working class, with no college education, and my mother stayed at home.

My sister, on the other hand, has a Master's degree and is middle management
in a large international organization. Her husband has a MA, and husband's
father was a college professor.

Her kids are approaching college age. I am astonished at the difference in the
amount of specific support those kids get from having parents who have gone
through the system, compared to the support my sister and I got from parents
with no college experience.

Don't get me wrong, we had plenty of encouragement to study ... for grades.
But the SAT? How were my parents supposed to know that they should ease off on
getting us to do homework and instead spend time preparing for the SAT?

So when you write "cultivating a culture which encourages study for
standardized tests in theory costs nothing", I don't believe you. That time
doesn't come for free. It must be taken from something else.

Going back to my question, which "certain communities" are you talking about,
and what should they be doing less of in order to study for a test which seems
less predictive of success than getting good high school grades from rigorous
courses?

~~~
eesmith
Looks like Forbes earlier this month posted on this topic, at
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2018/06/11/what-...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2018/06/11/what-
predicts-college-completion-high-school-gpa-beats-sat-score/) . "What Predicts
College Completion? High School GPA Beats SAT Score"

> For instance, a student with a high SAT score (above 1100) but a middling
> high school GPA (between 2.67 and 3.0) has an expected graduation rate of
> 39%. But students with the opposite credentials—mediocre SAT scores but high
> GPAs—graduate from college at a 62% rate.

> Put another way, the expected graduation rate of a student with a given GPA
> doesn’t change very much depending on her SAT score. But the expected
> graduation rate of a student with a given SAT score varies tremendously
> depending on her GPA.

