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Stanley H. Kaplan, a businessman and teacher who carved out a lucrative niche in the world of for-profit education and made test-preparation classes a rite of passage for students across America, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 90 and had homes in Manhattan and Boca Raton, Fla. The Stanley H. Kaplan Foundation and Kaplan Inc., his education company, announced his death Monday, saying the cause was heart failure. Propelled by his students’ success on the SAT and other standardized exams — and by the enormous growth in standardized testing — Mr. Kaplan transformed the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center...

It's fair to say the tide of elite opinion now runs solidly against the use of the SAT in college admissions. Last fall, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) released a report calling on its members at last to act on their skepticism by taking steps to decommission the test for use at their schools. When the report was presented at the group's convention last September, the only complaints were that it didn't go far enough in condemning the test. "It's a lousy test," one NACAC member said heatedly on the convention floor. "It's destructive of what all...

Thousands of high school seniors are racing this month to complete their applications to the University of California in hopes of becoming freshmen next fall. Meanwhile, UC officials are struggling with the question of how to create more opportunities for low-income and minority students to attend the state's elite public campuses. It's been a tense issue since voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning race and gender preferences in public institutions. Now, the UC president and regents are weighing changes to the admissions process that include dropping the SAT subject tests, loosening course requirements, and lowering the minimum grade point...

In the 1990s, several SUNY campuses chose to raise their admissions standards by requiring higher SAT scores, while others opted to keep them unchanged. [...] Thus, by comparing graduation rates at SUNY campuses that raised the SAT admissions bar with those that didn’t, we have a controlled experiment of sorts that can fairly conclusively tell us whether SAT scores were accurate predictors of whether a student would get a degree. The short answer is: yes, they were. Consider the changes in admissions profiles and six-year graduation rates of the classes entering in 1997 and 2001 at SUNY’s 16 baccalaureate institutions....

Talking to [NPR], Melody Barnes, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama’s campaign, said recently that Mr. Obama supports “portfolio assessment” of student performance. Portfolio assessment usually requires a student to perform various classroom assignments, like write essays, do individual projects, participate in group projects. These assignments are put into a portfolio for that student and evaluated. In a debate earlier this month, Linda Darling-Hammond, education adviser to Mr. Obama, pointed to other countries where students are assessed based on “kids doing science inquiries, research papers, technology products.” Portfolio-assessment supporters claim that this method gives a broader view of a student’s knowledge...

Last month, Wake Forest dropped the SAT and ACT as an entrance requirement, becoming the only top-30 national university with a test-optional policy. This step away from standardized tests will help us and other institutions of higher education move closer to the goals of greater educational quality and opportunity. Our decision to reevaluate our admissions policy grew out of a close look at the state of higher education and some long, hard thinking about the kind of university we want Wake Forest to be. For several years, a growing body of research has made clear that America's top colleges and...

The revamped SAT, expanded three years ago to include a writing test, predicts college success no better than the old test, and not quite as well as a student’s high school grades, according to studies released Tuesday by the College Board, which owns the test. “The changes made to the SAT did not substantially change how predictive the test is of first-year college performance,” the studies said. College Board officials presented their findings as “important and positive” confirmation of the test’s success. “The SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform,” said Laurence Bunin, senior vice...

Nine year-old Tyler Stoken, a student in the Aberdeen Public School District, didn't know how to answer an essay question on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. As punishment for leaving the question blank his principal suspended him for five days. Tyler paraphrases the question saying, "You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next." He's asked, "So why didn't you answer that question?" He says, "I couldn't think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal." He refused to answer the...

Many on the education beat puzzle over why the scores on the two leading college entrance exams differ so markedly. In a nutshell, ACT scores are up while SAT scores are down. The mystery is easily solved: the ACT is an easier test. For example, knowing where to place a comma and how to work an algebraic word problem puts you in the upper echelon of ACT test takers. For the SAT it is a floor. Against that backdrop, the losses and gains on the respective tests are not that earth-shaking: the ACT scores are up a point and the...

Gubernatorial candidate Bell pays visit to Hub City BY BETH AARON AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Texas schools focus too much on standardized testing, and teacher salaries should be increased, gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell said. Speaking before members of the Texas Sheriff's Association on Monday, Bell, D-Houston, said the state needs to focus on reforming public education and health care and discussed why he supports stem cell research. "We do live in a big state with big dreams, but right now we face big challenges, he said from a podium in the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theater. "It's about a new way versus an...

Officials at George Mason University in Fairfax announced yesterday that the school will allow some high-achieving students to apply for admission without submitting SAT scores, joining a growing list of colleges that are moving away from requiring applicants to take the standardized test. Admissions officials said high school students who rank in the top 20 percent of their class and have a grade-point average of 3.5 or better can apply without submitting SAT scores. Instead, the students will be required to submit two extra letters of recommendation from their teachers and will have to write an essay. Andrew Flagel, George...

Signs of positive improvements in Kentucky schools are being widely reported. The number of Kentuckians with a high school diploma is up 10 percent over the past decade; more of the commonwealth’s students are taking the ACT college entrance test, with scores are up over last year; and students’ scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), a widely used standardized test, have slightly improved. The general consensus among the education establishment and the media is that recent reports illustrate a slow, steady progress for educational attainment in the state, but that much work remains to be done. For...

Education officials defend TAKS against accusations of cheating AUSTIN (AP) — Texas education officials announced Monday they will hire an expert to review security measures on the state's standardized test but defended the system against evidence of cheating at hundreds of schools across the state. "We have zero tolerance for cheating," Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley said, applauding state efforts to maintain test integrity. She said most Texas educators would not tolerate cheating because "their personal code of honor would not permit it." A recent investigation by The Dallas Morning News found strong evidence that teachers and principals at nearly 400...

Newspaper investigation digs up evidence of schools cheating on standardized tests Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — A newspaper investigation has found evidence that a Houston elementary school celebrated for its high test scores obtained at least some of its success from cheating. "You're expected to cheat there," said Donna Garner, a former teacher at Wesley Elementary who said her fellow teachers instructed her on how to give students answers while administering tests. "There's no way those scores are real." The Dallas Morning News investigation also found evidence of cheating at two other schools affiliated with Wesley. Wesley, which has been...

For years, people like Thomas Sowell have argued that affirmative action regularly places Black students into schools for which they are not educationally qualified, that in so doing it dooms them to less challenging courses and failure. In debates about affirmative action , the performance of Black students on SAT tests is rarely mentioned. It should be. It is not only supportive of his arguments but the most damning evidence of the inadequacy of the urban school systems from which most of these students come. According to the College Board, 1,877 African American students nationwide scored higher than 1300 out...

Consultant helps LISD prepare for TAKS testing By RAY GLASS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Rhonda Tue emerged from a three-hour workshop on state-mandated curriculum, student expectations and assessment tests earlier this month as excited as a youngster on the first day of school. "I was blown away," said Tue, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade reading at Guadalupe Elementary School. Tue was among about 700 Lubbock Independent School District teachers and administrators who, with consultant Margaret Kilgo, explored strategies to raise student scores on the annual Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. Tue expects to see improvement after bench-mark testing in December. "I'm...

At Greenwich Country Day, a prestigious Connecticut private school, computers have all but replaced pencil and paper. Typing instruction starts in second grade, and laptops are mandatory by seventh. Essays are typed, and often class notes are, too. As an adult in today's work world, you don't write anything," said Carol Maoz, head of the upper school (grades 7-9), adding she couldn't think of an occasion students would write out a longhand essay. "You type everything. There really is no need for proper handwriting." Maybe not indeed, even notes get passed in class via text message these days. But next...

High Standards A gentleman in Alaska has sent me a copy of an exam the state of Washington required of all 8th-graders in 1910. I suspect that today many college graduates would have difficulty passing it. All of the questions were essay, and students were graded on their ability to write as well as on penmanship. Teachers did not "teach to the test." In fact, after the tests were handed out, the teachers left, and an outsider sat in the room. Students were not allowed to ask questions, and no explanations were given. Minimum passing grade in grammar and arithmetic...

Officials: New federal tests hurt students BY JUDY HOLLAND Hearst Newspapers WASHINGTON - Teachers, lawmakers and celebrities on Tuesday unveiled a book of letters that criticize the Bush administration's efforts to improve public schools by imposing federal testing. Critics of President Bush's centerpiece education program - known as "No Child Left Behind" - say it forces teachers to abandon more valuable academics in favor of preparing for federal tests. The program requires standardized testing for third through eighth grades in math and reading and identifies schools that don't pass muster as under-performing. The book, "Letters to the Next President: What...

CHARLESTON -- Black students in West Virginia perform well in their early years, but then experience a sharp decline, said Pat Kusimo of the Governor's Minority Students Strategy Council. "Kids start out in elementary school doing much better than in middle school," Kusimo said. And by high school, "it is almost disastrous achievement." To correct the problem among the state's largest minority group, Kusimo and council Chairwoman Patricia Petty Wilson suggested a series of local meetings to provide special training for counselors and psychologists to learn how to help minority and poor children achieve. Statistics show that 90 percent of...