Posted on 01/14/2024 9:05:41 AM PST by Twotone
The New York Times dropped a bombshell last weekend by admitting the leftists’ war on standardized tests such as the SAT was “misguided” after the paper has cheered for it for years (see here and here).
For decades, leftists have waged war against standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT as part of college admissions, claiming these tests are racially, economically, and even gender “biased” against black and brown children and girls, have little predictability for a student’s future success, and are the root cause of persistent academic performance gaps among students of various ethnic groups.
One of the loudest opponents of standardized tests is teachers unions. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, claimed in a tweet: “Standardized testing doesn’t help kids learn, and it doesn’t help teachers teach.” Her claim was self-serving because she and the unions have vehemently rejected any objective measures that demonstrate how much the union-controlled schools have failed American children.
Leftists’ relentless attacks on standardized tests finally paid off. By 2022, responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide racial reckoning sparked by George Floyd’s death, more than 1,700 American colleges and universities, including dozens of elite ones, had dropped SAT and ACT scores from their college admissions processes. Leftists claimed such a move would make college admission more “equitable,” benefiting black and brown children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Yet, a couple of years into this experiment, some, including college administrators, began to wonder if the war on standardized tests was “misguided.” David Leonhardt, a longtime Times reporter on higher education, wrote this weekend’s story questioning the wisdom of leftists’ war on SATs from several perspectives. Proof Standardized Tests Are Useful
First, study after study, including recent research, has repeatedly proven that standardized tests are strong predictors of a student’s success in college and later in life. According to Leonhardt, “an academic study released last summer by the group Opportunity Insights, covering the so-called Ivy Plus colleges (the eight in the Ivy League, along with Duke, M.I.T., Stanford, and the University of Chicago), showed little relationship between high school grade point average and success in college. The researchers found a strong relationship between test scores and later success.”
The finding is consistent with other similar research, including a 2020 study by the University of California, a 2007 study from the journal Science, and other research (see here and here) published by Psychological Science. All this research has demonstrated a clear correlation between SAT scores and a student’s academic and career accomplishments.
Second, after colleges dropped standardized test scores from their admissions, they have relied heavily on factors such as students’ GPAs, extracurriculars, and essays, which are problematic in their own ways. GPAs are ineffective predictors of academic success due to “grade inflation in recent years.”
Leonhardt says, “Affluent students can participate in expensive activities, like music lessons and travel sports teams, that strengthen their applications. These same students often receive extensive editing on their essays from their well-educated parents. Many affluent students attend private schools where counselors polish each student’s application.”
Consequently, by replacing the SAT and ACTs with essays and extracurriculars, the colleges have failed to achieve their equity goal because they “have even larger racial and economic biases.”
Without including an objective measure such as the SAT or ACT, “the students who suffer most are those with high grades at relatively unknown high schools, the kind that rarely send kids to the Ivy League,” Harvard economist David Deming told the New York Post. For those talented and hard-working kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, the SAT or ACT score is their “lifeline” that enables them to pull themselves out of poverty and achieve upward social mobility, he said.
Third, leftists have insisted that the disparity in SAT and ACT scores results from wealth disparity because affluent families can afford expensive test prep courses to improve their kids’ SAT or ACT scores. This assertion has long been debunked, and in 2010 the Princeton Review company dropped its claims that its “Ultimate Classroom” SAT preparation course would dramatically improve a student’s test score. A study by the Fordham Institute found more Asian students from the lowest socioeconomic status (whose mothers didn’t graduate from high school) outperformed the highest socioeconomic status black and Hispanic students in reading and math.
Since the disparities in SAT scores across racial and ethnic groups are consistent with the disparities in results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test that measures K-12 learning, some on the left are finally willing to admit that “the disparities in SAT scores are a symptom, not a cause, of inequality in the US,” or, “To put it another way, the existence of racial and economic gaps in SAT and ACT scores doesn’t prove that the tests are biased,” the Times reports. Thus, eliminating SATs and ACTs only hides rather than eliminates the racial gaps in education outcomes.
Fourth, some college admission officers found it easier to differentiate students with an objective and predictive measure such as an SAT or ACT score. MIT’s admissions dean told Leonhardt that without test scores, admissions officers either “have to guess which students were likely to do well at M.I.T. — and almost certainly guess wrong sometimes, rejecting qualified applicants while admitting weaker ones. Or M.I.T. would need to reject more students from less advantaged high schools and admit more from the private schools and advantaged public schools that have a strong record of producing well-qualified students,” which likely results in a less diverse student body.
MIT’s own study also “found that students who had been accepted despite lower test scores were more likely to struggle or drop out.” Unsurprisingly, MIT reinstated the SAT or ACT score requirement as part of its college admissions in 2022. Times Finally Acknowledges the Data
The Times’ conclusion that the left’s “misguided” war on SATs has failed to make higher education more “equitable” and has done a disservice to students from disadvantaged backgrounds is not surprising. Many conservatives, including myself, warned about it several years ago. What is surprising is that the Times, after serving as Democrats’ mouthpiece for so long, would raise questions about one of their favorite causes.
The timing of this piece probably resulted from the ripple effect of the recent resignation of Harvard University’s former president, Claudine Gay. Gay was forced to resign due to her failure to condemn antisemitism on campus and the mounting evidence of her alleged plagiarism. Gay’s resignation signals that DEI (so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion), the ideology that has sacrificed meritocracy and worsened racial divisions on college campuses and other institutions, is beginning to crack. Therefore, some moderates on the left finally find it safer to disapprove of specific leftist causes without having to worry about being canceled.
Of course, America still has a long way to go to repair the damage caused by DEI. For instance, many college administrators told the Times that despite all the evidence and research, they are still reluctant to reinstate SAT or ACT scores, fearing “the political reaction on their campuses and in the media if they reinstated tests.” I’m also disappointed that the Times has failed to call out the real objective of eliminating SAT or ACT in college admissions, which is to discriminate against Asian students. Without standardized tests, college admission officers can focus on racial quotas and reject academically qualified Asian American applicants without leaving a paper trail.
Still, the news of several states’ bans on DEI bureaucracy in their state university systems, Gay’s resignation, and this Times piece on the SAT give me hope that DEI’s hold on our higher education is starting to crumble, and some positive changes are coming.
Normal Americans already new this. It was just the boneheads in the far-left “media” who didn’t “get it.”
Gee....no kidding.
I wonder how bad things have gotten in colleges if the NYT is backtacking on this type of dogma?
The left only admits mistakes when they are obvious, and tragic.
The Times is only doing this cuz it’s readership is down because, well, it’s audience can’t read!
I would like to see an analysis of student success in college and later in life correlated to home life. For example: (1) is there a father; (2) was there one or more divorces; (3) are the parents on welfare or other government assistance; (4) membership in a gang or cartel.
Plus the students cannot repay their college loans because their degrees are practically worthless and working at McDonald’s doesn’t pay their bills even the they’re still living with Mom and Dad!
Just like every other obviously stupid idea libtards have implemented since I was in grade school and force bussed an hour across town to poor black schools
Quite correct. What they do is measure if teachers are doing their job and kids are learning.
I had a teacher in collage who, after a test, came in and said we were going to go over something we had already studied. We grumbled a bit and she said that since almost 90% of us had not answered the questions on that section properly we may have studied it but we obviously did not understand it.
We spent a week going over it and she even brought in another teacher to present the subject in a different way to make sure we had a firm grasp of the material.
When she tested us again 98% of us showed we at least grasped the concept even if our arithmetic could use some work.
That is what tests are for.
It’s too late, because of leftist bastards the NYT the tests were scrapped in many institutions and the results are what you would expect.
"Extracurriculars", unless they have actual academic value, are worthless. How does spooning soup to the homeless relate to a college education? The schools should stay in their lanes and leave philanthropy to religion.
Essays, on the other hand, could be quite valuable, but only if written under the eyes of a proctor.
Are they actually admitting it? Because what they usually do is act as if they have discoverd some new problem for which they are not to blame.
We spent a week going over it and she even brought in another teacher to present the subject in a different way to make sure we had a firm grasp of the material.
I teach university mathematics, and many years ago there was a new lecturer who did exactly what you described after every test. But he did not have the luxury of composing the Final Exam -- students are required to take a Final composed by the Department. All of his students failed miserably. Upon receiving their F's, there was a big stink and they demanded a meeting with the Dean. Turns out they had only covered half the course because the lecturer was so far behind with all of his reviewing after each test. The guy was fired then and there. The students were given the time in between semesters to review with a different lecturer and take a different version of the Final. I've worked there for 20 years, and this was the only time that kind of concession was made.
I gave a short five to ten question multiplie choice quiz usually after each lecture. It helped me understand if the students understood the basic concepts of the day’s lecture.
If 50 or 60% of students answered a question incorrectly, I discussed the material on the question. The question appeared in the next hourly exam and most of the students answered the question correctly.
Wasn’t a permanent 100 points added to all SAT scores in the 1990s?
“Still, the news of several states’ bans on DEI bureaucracy in their state university systems, Gay’s resignation, and this Times piece on the SAT give me hope that DEI’s hold on our higher education is starting to crumble, and some positive changes are coming.”
Sadly, I don’t hold much hope for that. Once stuff like this gets institutionalized it’s very tough to uproot. To uproot it, you have to uproot the pervasive delusional assumption that all races on AVERAGE are the same and that therefore they should achieved equal AVERAGE results.
As long as you hold that position, any inequality of results will be blamed on whites, which are all congenital racists.
Correction, the left only admits mistakes when they can no longer profit from them.
"The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive." - Thomas Sowell
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