Editorial Observer A Broader Definition of Merit: The Trouble With College Entry Exams
By BRENT STAPLES The New York Times October 2, 2008 Imagine yourself an admissions director of a status-seeking college that wants desperately to move up in the rankings. With next year's freshman class nearly filled, you are choosing between two applicants. The first has very high SAT scores, but little else to recommend him. The second is an aspiring doctor who tests poorly but graduated near the top of his high school class while volunteering as an emergency medical technician in his rural county. This applicant has the kind of background that higher education has always claimed to covet. But the pressures that are driving colleges - and the country as a whole - to give college entry exams more weight than they were ever intended to have would clearly work against him. Those same pressures are distorting the admissions process, corrupting education generally and slanting the field toward students whose families can afford test preparation classes. Consider the admissions director at our hypothetical college. He knows that college ranking systems take SAT's and ACT's into account. He knows that bond-rating companies look at the same scores when judging a college's credit worthiness. And in lean times like these, he would be especially eager for a share of the so-called merit scholarship money that state legislators give students who test well. These and related problems are the subject of an eye-opening report from a commission convened by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The commission, led by William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, offers a timely reminder that tests like the SAT and ACT were never meant to be viewed in isolation but considered as one in a range of factors that include grades, essays and so on. But the report goes further, urging schools to move away from traditional admissions tests in favor of exams that would be more closely related to high school achievement and that are at least currently exempt from the hype and hysteria that surround the SAT. Mr. Fitzsimmons said that Harvard would always use tests. But he raised eyebrows when he said the school might one day join the growing number of colleges that have made the SAT and the ACT optional. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/opinion/02thu4.html *********************************** * POST TO MEDIANEWS@ETSKYWARN.NET * *********************************** Medianews mailing list Medianews@etskywarn.net http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
