Posted on 05/11/2005 4:38:02 PM PDT by emeryboard
Holy Cross College is dropping the SAT as an admissions requirement, apparently in the name of boosting ethnic diversity. I disagree with this decision. Not only is it a capitulation to the notion that blacks and Hispanics are somehow unable to get high SAT scores (which is politically correct bigotry, in my book), it also plays into the conspiracy theory that the test is somehow inherently biased against blacks and Hispanics. As Harvard professors Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom have pointed out, Asians tend to do better than whites on the SAT; if the creators of the test were deliberately trying to make the test biased, why would they make it biased in favor of Asians?
Dropping the SAT is an easy way out, an example of what President Bush once called "the soft bigotry of low expectations."
(Excerpt) Read more at drtucker.blogs.friendster.com ...
This is not the way to go about this. Cast your net wide. Those who qualify can be admitted, while those who don't can keep shopping. Dropping your standards due to race is paternalistic, to say the least. And those who are admitted sans SAT scores would be considered walking stereotypes.
This causes more harm than anything!
Before the SAT came along colleges used to do their own evaluations. Enormous state universities would admit everyone to the first semester, then flunk them out left and right.
You are, unfortunately, correct.
Ethnic diversity? How many illegals will be applying?
Another chapter in the Dumbing-Down of Amerika!
This is the typical leftist response to striving for high standards: if maintaining standards won't give you the preferred (politically correct) outcomes, then the standards are the problem. We've seen this over and over again in the decadence and depravity of left-wing cultural decay.....
"As Harvard professors Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom have pointed out, Asians tend to do better than whites on the SAT; if the creators of the test were deliberately trying to make the test biased, why would they make it biased in favor of Asians?"
hahahaha.
but you have to keep in mind that Asians are also descriminated against with affirmative action
More multicultural stupidity from academia...
IMHO, here's the problem with the SAT at this point in time.
If your parents have enough bucks (around $1200 to $3000), you can take a prep course and they will teach you strategies for taking the test.
My nephew just completed one of these prep courses, and it helped him raise his SAT score considerably.
IMHO, that has undermined the strength of the SAT, because it is no longer a true predictor of a student's strengths, but at times is just a predictor of who learned how to "take" the test.
The other problem is that the much vaunted essay portion of the test is judged on length alone. You can write absolute nonsense for the rest of the essay after the first paragraph and get a very high score.
The SAT is a sick joke.
I just read an article about a test specialist who could judge the score on the writing portion by having a person hold it up from across the room.
He said the same thing, the length of the essay determined the score. Very sad because a good writer knows "more" can usually be written with less words
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address would have failed the essay test if the subject question was best answered by it.
Sorry, but that's a clear sign that something is seriously broken.
The SAT didn't used to have an essay portion when I took it. The libs pushed for its inclusion as a poison pill and now they can say that it is useless because of the essay portion...
Any objective measurement is the enemy of liberals and they strive to destroy it.
Can I send my dog. He showed up and got 100 on the SAT for trying.
Stoo-pid. FYI - I judged your post on content.
I'm going to assume that you were referring to the new grading system as stupid as opposed to yours truly.
I don't know what it is now, but after the "new, harder" (pre-essay) SATs were introduced in the 90s, you got 400 points for showing up and putting your name on the paper.
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