By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Analogies are to the SAT test as derivative problems are to a calculus exam and as switching lanes are to a driving test. But these analogies may not be accurate forever.
The College Board, which administrators the SAT I and II tests and Advanced Placement exams, is considering changing its test in order to hold onto its biggest client – the University of California.
The College Board has suggested eliminating or seriously reducing the analogy portion of the test, creating a writing portion and making the math sections more difficult, the board announced on March 23.
“It’s an important step,” said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board.
Even with these developments, high school students nationwide should not throw away their SAT study books or stop showing up for prep courses yet – the test won’t change for at least four years.
College Board trustees last week authorized Caperton and his staff to explore possible changes to the test. Recommended changes would go back to the trustees for a vote in June and, if approved, would go into effect no earlier than 2006.
The College Board’s proposal comes just over a year after UC President Richard Atkinson stunned the academic world by calling for the UC to drop the SAT in its admissions criteria.
Atkinson argued that the SAT no longer served the UC’s needs. The SAT encourages high school students to study word riddles and enigmatic math problems at the expense of reading poetry and practicing chemistry, Atkinson said shortly after making his proposal.
The threat of losing thousands of potential UC students has almost forced the College Board to explore test changes.
“There is no doubt that the conversation opened by Dr. Atkinson … spurred the College Board and the academic community to think faster than they usually do,” said Chiara Coletti, the College Board’s vice president of public affairs.
UC officials tentatively supported the proposal to change the SAT.
“It appears at this juncture that the College Board has seen the wisdom of (Atkinson’s) argument,” said UC spokesman Michael Reese.
Others remain less convinced.
“They’re just trying to put some polish on a tarnished product,” said Bob Schaeffer, a spokesman for FairTest, a Cambridge, Mass.-based group that is among the SAT’s harshest critics.
When Atkinson initially took his stance against the SAT, he went completely against the grain. At a time when President Bush and Gov. Gray Davis were advocating more teacher and student accountability by way of standardized tests, Atkinson called his university system to cut ties with the most popular college admissions test, taken by nearly 2 million students every year.
Since Atkinson’s proposal, officials throughout the UC and the country have debated the test’s benefits and drawbacks. Supporters say the test provides a way for colleges to identify which applicants benefited from grade inflation in high school.
Critics attack the SAT as culturally and gender biased. On average, whites and Asian Americans score higher than Latinos and African Americans, and there is a direct relationship between family income and test score. SAT supporters, though, contend that the reasons for a gap in scores lie in the socio-economic condition of the test taker and an unfair public school system, not the test itself.
Males tend to score almost 50 points higher than females on the SAT, suggesting test score discrepancies are not only based on the socio-economic conditions of the test taker. But test supporters point out that female students are less likely than male students to take AP science and math classes, saying they are not pushed to do so in the same way.
In many ways, the changes the College Board has suggested reflect the qualities of a UC-proposed new admissions that aim to be more closely tied to the state’s high school curriculum.
In January, a UC faculty committee recommended that the UC develop a new test on reading, writing and mathematics and more closely tied to what California students learn in the classroom. Three weeks ago, a group of UC Regents met in closed session to discuss the possibility of switching to such a test.
“We want to send the message to teachers, students and parents that studying courses in high school will pay off because you will be tested on them in the admissions process,” Atkinson said at the March 13 meeting.
The proposed test would encompass an enhanced version of the SAT I math section and a writing portion similar to that of the SAT II writing test, said Dorothy Perry, chair of the systemwide Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, which presented the test design to the regents during the March meeting.
The proposed test is expected to go before the regents in July. If approved, it could be in place by 2006.
The possibility of the College Board changing its test will likely not affect the UC’s own plans, Reese said.
Reports from Daily Bruin wire services.