That Cruel, Cruel SAT

Yesterday the SAT made the news. It's going to change formats (again) in 2016.  Too late for my kids -- one's in college now, and one will take her SATs next year -- but I paid attention anyway.

I have long felt the SAT to be an unfair test for incoming college students -- and not because I did so badly on it, which I did. (I will not tell you my SAT scores. This should give you an idea of the kind of hold the SAT puts on its test takers even decades later!)

To me, the SAT is not a test based in fairness. I happen to be able to afford the cost of SAT prep for my kids -- my older daughter took a class (at $600) for her prep. She felt it helped, though of course I don't know for sure because she never took the test without it. Still other kids in our very economically and socially diverse town can afford private tutors. Others can't afford anything and go in blind, or with just the ragged SAT prep books in the library.

I know a lot of very smart kids who do very well in school but not so great on their SATs. My older daughter graduated with above a 4.0 GPA, took Honors classes in a challenging school district, and has an incredible,  unmatched work ethic. She did okay but not probably where she should have been given her intelligence and focus.  I don't blame her for that. I blame the test.  Why are the reading passages so impossible? Why are the words ones we will never use in real life? Why is the math focused on math done, by many students, over two years previously? The College Board says it is fixing all of those things. Well, great. But I'm reserving my enthusiasm...because I'm not sure I believe they will be fixed enough.

Back to my daughter...

She wound up going to a very good college. They didn't care so much about SAT scores, seeing them for what they are. And I'm happy to say that two years after her acceptance (and now with a nearly perfect GPA in college), that more and more schools are putting less and less emphasis on this test, some getting rid of it entirely, others making it optional, others promising it will not make or break a decision.  I still see it being used to make scholarship decisions though, which makes me angry, and of course, many colleges still do have a minimum SAT they will take into consideration when making admissions decisions.  The SAT does not determine college ability or creativity or focus or drive.

Are we not putting enough pressure on our teens as it is? The college admissions process is already fraught with pressure most adults couldn't handle -- from taking as many Honors or AP classes -- as young as freshman year -- as possible, to making sure you're well rounded -- don't forget your sport, your clubs, your honor societies, your art or music endeavors, your volunteer work, your AP exams -- 4s and 5s only, please-- that I don't see we need an additional three hour test to decide whether the kids are worthy of admission to ANY college. Since the test has time and again shown to have problems, why do we keep doing it to them?

Who else wants to ban standardized testing -- SAT or ACT or ANY standardized testing -- from being a benchmark of the college admissions process?