They Just Announced Major Changes to the SAT…and There’s a Tie to Common Core

The Blaze ^ | 3-4-2014 | Dave Urbanski

[ransomnote]

So if you’re not penalized for the wrong answer, why take the test?

_______________________________

It’s the thought that counts.....

Re removing the essay part. I think that it’s a number of features. First, too often students entering colleges (this is Kalifornia but likely true elsewhere) are not literate and therefore are required to take remedial English courses. So if they are going to have to take remedial English anyway, why have the essay section? I think this happened in Kalifornia because to be “fair” (increase minority admission over more qualified Asian and white students)the state public university system started considering for admission the top 10% of every high school. (talk about grade inflation tsunami).
Then there is the likelihood that they were using software programs to try to replace the time/effort/reliability issues of using live scorers.

If they were using live scorers - it’s time consuming and requires many highly skilled people (with better things to do with their time) to sit in a room and read essays all day. With the rate at which literacy is falling in our country, they are probably finding it hard to hire enough and are having to pay more for them. (e.g., it takes weeks of interviewing administrative assistants to find one that can write a business letter) So live scoring is very slow and expensive compared with computer scoring. They do train and test their scorers to try to eliminate subjectivity - scorers train until they are rating papers on par with others in their group - but it is always an issue.

I can imagine that inter-rater reliability was the subject of lawsuits when certain students were not admitted or perhaps challenges indicating that there were cultural differences that the “highly educated scorers” were not prepared to properly evaluate.(multiculturalism)

I think the strongest reason for changes to SAT scores is indeed common core -the scores MUST appear to increase with common core.

[RIghtwardHo]

Actually, I find essays way too subjective for this kind of test. Further, all wrong answers are not created equal. Sometimes, a wrong answer could be correct especially if more facts are considered (depending on the question of course). And guessing gets you no where.

As for those two changes, I think they more adequately reflect the intelligence of the student. If you are guessing, you get a low score anyway and since everyone will be on equal footing that is all that matters.

[Chickensoup]

They are trying to control the homeschoolers and all others by - if they don’t learn to think/ to answer/ to guess/ to recognize test questions in the NEW way, they won’t get high SAT scores and will be excluded from the ‘elite’ universities. I know they are trying to control homeschoolers!!

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I don’t think so. Homeschoolers mostly have a year or two of college under their belt by the end of the high school credits.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

They were on equal footing before.

The only thing this does is improve the "optics." It will make it look like the scores are rising because the teachers are doing a better job, when it's not true.

That's SOP for government schools.

[grania]

What kept the SAT as a test where in about 95% of the cases a good test-prepper could predict within 100 points (usually much closer) a students score would be on each section is the penalty for guessing. It meant that a person would benefit from not guessing wildly, thus it required knowing the material.

Without a penalty a "good guesser" can easily come out above average. With the penalty, it's hard.

[CodeToad]

If they dumb down the SAT any further they might as well just ask, “Are you a liberal? If so, perfect score!”

[opentalk]

Stealth way to get common core into private and religious schools, if all college entrance exams will be based on how well a student can answer common core curriculum

[Pearls Before Swine]

....so take both and see how you do.

I did great, thanks. In 1963.

[BwanaNdege]

The answers are a follows:

B
3.7
None of the Above
NO

This sequence, repeated throughout the test, will guarantee you a sufficiently high score to gain admission to the college or university of your choice...

Provided you meet one or more of the following criteria:

You can run, jump, handle a ball, have a close relative who is an alumnus/major donor or you are a member of the Protected/Underdog/DiversityBonusPoint class du jour.

[BatGuano]

How many correct answers is the key. My score in the Verbal section was 780..Math, not so hot 410, At least I exempted English in college when the placement test they gave was averaged with the SAT. My kids scored the opposite, high in Math and average in English.

[Tired of Taxes]

Here’s one you may find interesting.

[Tired of Taxes]

This might not be as bad as it sounds...

The writing portion was added to the SAT several years ago, and many universities won’t even consider it, anyway, in the admissions process.

Also, according to what I’ve heard, by not penalizing students for wrong answers, the SAT is trying to become more like the ACT, which doesn’t deduct penalties for wrong answers.

[MV=PY]

The only thing this does is improve the "optics." It will make it look like the scores are rising because the teachers are doing a better job, when it's not true.

Exactly! When studies are done 5 years from now they will show an increase in test scores which will be attributed to the success of the school system.

Let's move the goalpost!

[metmom]

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[Intolerant in NJ]

In other words, the old SAT’s are just plain too difficult for today’s kids....

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

before the new exam kicks in, the College Board, in partnership with Khan Academy, will offer free online practice problems from old tests and instructional videos showing how to solve them.

This could be bad news for the Washington Post. Wasn’t Kaplan, the SAT Prep outfit, a cash cow for the owner of the WaPo? Competition from Khan could subvert Kaplan’s profitability (even more, I think it had fallen on hard times IIRC)