Posted on 03/07/2014 6:55:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Anybody for junking the SATs and using school performance instead?
Hard words? Hard like “sesquipedalianism” or hard like “adamantine?”
Sister Mary Katherine is not pleased.
No one seems to be mentioning it here or elsewhere, but the SATs have been dumbed down consistently (once in every 4-5 years) since the mid-60s. Tired of the “dumbed-down” accusation, the test-makers in the early late 80s tried a little PR. The tests weren’t being dumbed-down, but “re-centered.” The re-centering never stopped. And whaddyaknow—Fairfax County finally had two 1600-ers in the same year (think it was ‘93). We were never told how many more 1500+ scores resulted; but overall “achievement” definitely improved. Coincidence, no doubt.
Worse still, tho, is the predictor-of-college-success ruse. I can’t imagine that there’s a soul (ANY soul who seriously wants a degree) in the country who can’t get a degree in something. Of course, there are few takers in the math/engineering/sciences areas—even where scholarships abound. But who needs all that brain-exercise when there are oh-so-many other paths to sheepskin?
Yes, it would be right, in some circumstances, to say that the SATs (even the ACTs) are extraneous and obsolete. But if they’re eliminated, what’s left is the dumbed-down, re-centered, wholly subjective and local classroom grade.
Czarina of linguistics Rachel Jentael has been tapped to re-qrite the new improved SAT vocabulary test. Guaranteed 100% free of cursive.
Nigguh is to Crackuh as Skittle is to Drank
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