In the mid 1900s, the ACT and SAT became a college admission device in America that would carry on to the present day. For high school students, junior year becomes a maelstrom of chaos in taking advanced courses and preparing to take college entrance examinations. In all, it is extremely time consuming, as over 1.6 million juniors prepare for the ACT around the United States and nearly 7 million individuals around the world prepare for the SAT by spending weekends and free time studying for these standardized tests (“About Us”; “What We Do”). A student’s entire education is put to the test, and eventually converted into a number that is allegedly able to tell how successful he or she will be in his or her first year of college. One Saturday exam could decide a student’s fate in further education, but no pressure, right? When put to the test, extensive research shows that these tests are not all they are cracked up to be. ACT and SAT examinations are not an accurate measure of students’ aptitude for college and should no longer be a requirement for college admissions.
For starters, one example of standardized tests not being an accurate measure of students’ aptitude for college, students of higher income families tend to do much better than those who are not. Many researchers and research groups have found trends in household income linking to the success in standardized testing. Fair Test, an organization whose goal is to promote and achieve fair and open testing for all, conducted a study this past year which proves this point. Of all the college-bound seniors in the class of 2013 who had taken the SAT, scores increased almost proportionally to family income. Test takers in the lowest family income range of $0 to $20,000 had an...
... middle of paper ...
...onski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. From “Surviving without the SAT.” Chronicle of Higher Education 10 Oct. 2008. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
National Poverty Center. “Poverty Facts: Poverty in the United States.” National Poverty Center. Regents of the University of Michigan. 2014. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
Penn, Jeffery. “Standardized Testing Measures College Success.” Standardized Testing. Ed. Diane Andrews Henningfeld. Detriot: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Rpt. From “Expert Says SAT is Reliable Predictor of College Success, New SAT Will Measure Writing Ability.” The New York Academy of Sciences. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
“This House would abolish standardized tests for University Admission." idebate.org. 2 Mar 2012. idebate.org, Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
“What We Do.” ACT. ACT, INC. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Standardized tests, such as the SAT and the SOL, have been implemented for many years now for individuals in grade school to take. The SOL’s, or Standards of Learning tests, are Virginia’s version of standardized tests that students are required to take in order to pass a class, evaluating their knowledge on a specific subject. SOL’s are mandatory for students to take as soon as they reach third grade. Additionally, the SAT is a test taken in the final years of high school that colleges look at when comparing students for post-secondary school. People concerned with student’s education can come to the common consensus that education is important and there should be some way to compare a student’s achievements to one another. However, the process
... a tedious process, but the change can have immense, positive effects for the future college student. The ACT and SAT that supposedly measure a student's learning potential through multiple-choice questions should be replaced by a test of a student's desire to learn determined through the analysis of essays, recommendation letters, and school or community involvement. This change can result in a more academically motivated freshman class. Standardized testing in its current form does not accurately measure most students' learning potential. It does not allow for diversity and creates a huge hurdle for many potential academic achievers. An adjustment to a diverse, open testing format of the ACT or SAT and a stress on the student's other academic accomplishments can accurately measure the student's desire to learn, therefore measuring the student's learning potential.
A scholarly journal written by an anonymous author sheds light on the importance of standardized testing by showing its efficiency in higher level education. This article provides a solid counterargument for the use of standardized tests which is standardized tests being a good source of predicting grades throughout college as well as whether students will stay long enough to graduate. It is also able to establish that the SAT is effective in forecasting a grade-point average through the fourth year as well as predicting students study habits. The
Westervelt, Eric. “College Applicants Sweat The SATs. Perhaps They Shouldn’t::NPR” NPR.org , 18 Feb 2014. Web.17 May 2014.
Today students go to school from K-12 earning their education and take a standardized test during their junior or senior years (sometimes sophomore year). The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and other standardized test are used by colleges across the world to determine if a student is ready for college. As a result, there are some individuals that disagree with the use of standardized testi...
Evans, Donia. "The Case Against Standardized Tests." The Meridian Star. 24 Nov. 2013. The Meridian Star. 01 Dec. 2013 .
Standardized testing is a type of test usually serve to determine how well you understand a concept which is often used for placement. These types of test include questions in a form of an essay, short answers, multiple choices, or a combination of these together and are given out as early as in kindergarten. This practice has been used for so long that it has become a part of the American culture. Every year, high school juniors and seniors worldwide take the SAT or the ACT in the hope that they score high enough to get into their dream school. However, there has been a lot of ongoing debates revolving around the idea of the use of standardized testing in college admission and the whether or not they are effective in determining a student’s
Standardized tests have been a scourge of student life in America for more than fifty years. Throughout the United States, high school students prepare for months for the day in which they have to take out their No. 2 pencils, to endure four everlasting hours of bubbling-in answers. The ACT, American College Testing, and its counterpart, the SAT, Scholastic Assessment Test, are known as the high school exit exams, in which they have become one of the largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. Both standardized tests judge a student 's performance, in which it measures how well students learned skills to meet state standards. Although standardized tests are meant to measure what one learns in high school in order to determine
So, using these long multiple choice exams are what college’s consider to be a reflection of a student’s grades during their first year at college. The test maker itself explains that grade point averages during high school paint a better picture than their tests ("The ACT: Biased, Inaccurate, and Misused" 1). College’s use these standardized tests as a quick measure of ability. However, a test cannot explo...
Thus for standardized testing to be legitimate, that statement must be true, otherwise standardized testing would be a very expensive and pointless test. In a study conducted by William Hiss, he sampled 33 universities and over 123,000 students and concluded that SAT scores are a poor predictor of college performance which he defines as college culminated GPA over the years. By plotting a scatterplot that compares college GPA with SAT scores, he found no reliable correlation between SAT scores and college GPA. In fact, studies undertaken by the College Board indicate that the SAT adds only modestly to the prediction of student’s success. Interestingly, Hiss found out that high school GPA is the best predictor of college GPA. According to Hiss, “kids who had low or modest test scores, but good high school grades, did better in college than those with good scores but modest grades.” (Hiss) Hiss elaborated on this saying “a pattern of hard work, discipline and curiosity in high school shows up ‘as highly predictive, in contrast to what they do in three or four hours on a particular Saturday morning in a testing room.’”(Hiss) Looking at high school grades shows much more information that just how well the student did in a particular class. It shows whether the students were challenging themselves with advance placement class and
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
In today’s society, the process of college admissions dominates the life of high schoolers and has become extremely competitive. Central to most college applications are standardized test scores. Whether they be ACT or SAT, standardized testing is required by most universities to use as a baseline evaluator for applicants. These scores are help admissions offices fairly compare students from different schools and areas of the country and allow applicant to distinguish themselves from others. Yet, standardized tests also inhibit creativity and imagination by limiting tests to memorable facts and inconsequential information. Additionally, students from wealthy backgrounds have a significant advantage when taking standardized tests, which often
However, the newly revised SAT will not encourage students to improve their reasoning abilities and aptitude for their college level of works. This is because the test is moving towards achieving, the results will only be showing what they learned throughout high school, and will not be proving their capabilities in handling college work in their first two years. The re...
It is time for all universities to reconsider its use of SAT scores as a major factor in college admission and as a predictor of academic success. Women, minorities, and the poor are at a distinct disadvantage because of the test's content and format. It will be interesting to see how the "new and improved" SAT in 2005 will be received. We are skeptical of its acceptance because it is almost impossible to have the foresight to eliminate all underlying biases. The current SAT is not a fair test because it is biased and discriminatory toward women, minority groups, and the poor. It should not be used to determine the future of so many people because the only thing it really measures is how well people take the test.
Sacks, Peter. "The Toll Standardized Tests Take." National Education Association. 2000. Web. 2 July 2015.