ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
The President of the University of California, Richard C. Atkinson, has recommended that the use of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores in determining admission to the Golden State’s public university system be discontinued.
At the annual meeting of the American Council on Education in Washington, Atkinson told the audience that “for many years, I have worried about the use of the SAT, but last year my concerns coalesced.”
The turning point, according to Atkinson, was a trip to an upscale private school, where he learned “that they spend hours each month -- directly and indirectly -- preparing for the SAT.”
“The time involved was not aimed at developing the students’ reading and writing abilities but rather their test-taking skills,” he continued. “I have concluded what many others have concluded -- that America’s overemphasis on the SAT is compromising our educational system.”
The proposal flies in the face of a national movement toward greater emphasis on standardized testing and increased school accountability. President George W. Bush, for example, has included provisions for nationwide testing of basic skills as part of the education package he will send to Congress.
For the University of California to suspend the use of the SAT, both the faculty senate and the university system’s governing board of regents must approve the decision.
Under the Atkinson proposal, the nine-campus state university system would drop the requirement that applicants submit scores from the SAT I, an aptitude test, but would continue to require the so-called SAT II, which tests students in subject areas such as English, mathematics, history, science and foreign languages. Along with the SAT I, the University of California would also drop the use of the ACT test, another standardized test which students are now allowed to submit as an alternative to the SAT I.
The move follows similar decisions taken by Bates, Bowdoin, and Mount Holyoke colleges, which each make the SAT an optional part of the admissions process. Nevertheless nearly 90 percent of four-year colleges and universities require the SATs for admission.
MIT Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones has called Atkinson’s move “brave ... even bold.” Jones, however, has also expressed reservations about such a move.
“I wonder how they will assess all of those students equitably without some standardization,” she said. “I can only imagine that this will be a nightmare because, being a state university system funded by taxpayers, the UC system will have to prove that it has found a way without the SAT to be fair to all applicants, including those populations who traditionally score high on the SAT but who would lose that advantage in a new system.”
Still, Jones understands the sentiment behind the proposed move.
“I know that the College Board suggests that the source of SAT score differences lies in the socio-economic level of various populations and school systems, but without solutions to this, California is facing a future in which its majority populations (Black, Latino, Asian) will increasingly be closed out of a public university education, all because of a standardized test.”
The university as a whole has seen minority admissions fall drastically in the years following the passage of the state ballot initiative Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action programs at California’s state universities.
The university system has already de-emphasized the use of the SAT by allowing students in the top four percent of their high school class to bypass the standardized tests in applying for admission.