[ALBSA-Info] NYTimes.com Article: College Board to Revise SAT

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College Board to Revise SAT

March 23, 2002 

By TAMAR LEWIN


 

The College Board is planning to revamp the main SAT test
taken by generations of college-bound students,
acknowledging that it is doing so partly in response to
criticism from the University of California and others that
the test does not reflect enough of what is actually
learned in the classroom. 

The exact nature of the changes, which would take effect
with the high school class graduating in 2006, will not be
determined until the College Board trustees next meet in
June. But the College Board trustees took the first step on
Thursday by asking the staff for recommendations on
revising the three-hour verbal and math test. The plan for
revising the test was first reported in yesterday's Wall
Street Journal. 

Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, said
the revised test would likely require students to provide a
handwritten short essay and multiple-choice writing
questions, along with more advanced math problems based
less on aptitude and reasoning, and more on problem-solving
learned in second year algebra or perhaps trigonometry.
Currently, the exam's math problems cover only arithmetic,
first-year algebra and geometry. 

"Obviously the writing is a whole new thing, but it's
something that was recommended to be added as far back as
1993," Mr. Caperton said. "You can only change so much if
you want to have longitudinal data, comparing results over
the years, which is very important. We're not creating a
whole new test, we're making some improvements. I would be
very surprised if more than half the test changed. Most of
it will be similar to what's been on there in the past." 

Mr. Caperton said that while it is too early to outline how
each section of the so-called SAT I might change, it is
likely that the analogy section of the verbal test would
either be eliminated or cut back. 

"Analogies have analytical thinking that is very important,
but some people feel that reading comprehension can measure
the same kind of intellectual skill, and maybe in a fairer
way," he said. "Reading is more consistent with what people
are learning in school, and more connected to the
curriculum." 

While Mr. Caperton played down the extent of the likely
changes, his description of the goals of the process
reflect a profound change, turning what was once deemed an
aptitude, or intelligence, test - until 1990, the S.A.T.
stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test - into an achievement
test designed to measure what is actually learned in the
classroom. 

"What you're learning in the classroom should be critically
important to how you do on this test, " Mr. Caperton said.
"That should help focus people on improving the classroom,
making it more and more clear that the issue is not the
test, it's an unequal educational system." 

Nicholas Lemann, whose 1999 book, "The Big Test," traced
the rise of the SAT, said he was heartened by the proposed
shift, not because it would do much to change the system of
admissions to the nation's most selective colleges, but
because it might help improve education for millions of
high school students. 

"A switch in the test will not change the composition of
the freshman class at Harvard very much," Mr. Lemann said.
"But given the nature of our society, where everyone wants
to be someone, the main college-admission test ends up
being an organizing principle for much of American high
school life. So if the test would now be billed as an
achievement test, and you could tell people that the way to
do better on it is to learn what's being taught in the
classroom, it's a lever to improve the teaching at schools
with systemically low scores, and a much healthier signal
than a curriculum-free aptitude test." 

The College Board has been re-thinking the SAT I for some
years, as more colleges, including Bates, Bowdoin and Mount
Holyoke, have dropped it from their requirements. 

But the board was galvanized last year when Dr. Richard C.
Atkinson, president of the University of California,
proposed replacing the SAT I with a new test that would
more closely reflect the state's high school curriculum.
That university, and other critics, have expressed concern
that the SAT I favors students from middle- and
upper-income families - and that both grade-point average
and SAT II subject test scores are better predictors of
which students are likely to succeed in college. 

"When Dr. Atkinson said he didn't want the University of
California to use the SAT, it really speeded us up, and
heightened what we're doing," said Mr. Caperton, a former
governor of West Virginia. 

The nine-campus, 178,000-student University of California
is the biggest user of the SAT I. Earlier this month, a
U.C. faculty committee recommended that the school replace
the test, beginning in 2006, with a new core test,
supplemented by subject-matter tests, along the lines of
the SAT II's, concrete knowledge tests offered in 22
subjects from world history and physics to Japanese. 

Both the College Board and ACT - the rival exam, which is
more popular in the central United States, and more
achievement-based - have been working with the university
to create a test that would meet the university's wish for
a core test linked closely to California's curriculum. Mr.
Caperton expressed hope that the new SAT I might eliminate
the need for a new California test. 

"Transportability is really important, so that you can
measure in-state students and out-of-state students by the
same yardstick," Mr. Caperton said. "If we come up with a
new test, I'm sure they'll give it very strong
consideration." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/education/23EXAM.html?ex=1017900033&ei=1&en=911c5225ee5cf327



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