New look for a old test
After creating a monster, the keepers of the fateful SAT college entrance exam now want to tame it. A string of changes will tamp down the worst aspects while still pursuing the elusive goal of measuring what it takes to succeed in college.
The new test, to be debuted in 2016, both simplifies and complicates the showdown exam. A required essay will be optional, and a vocabulary quiz studded with 10-cent words such as “prevaricator,” and “sagacious” will be phased out. Students won’t be penalized for taking a stab and guessing wrong on multiple choice answers, and the overall point total of 2,400 will be trimmed to 1,600, where it was in 2005 when the test was last tweaked.
On one level, the switches minimize the tricks and oddities of an exam that can make winners out of kids who “test well’’ or have a knack for the SAT’s quirks. But the changes are also about making the process more reflective of classroom work and analytical skills.
Understanding written arguments and sorting out thought processes will be played up in the new test, which many educators have begged for. Passages from the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln’s speeches and Martin Luther King Jr.’s writings will be used to draw out student responses.
Noble as that sounds, there’s also a financial angle. The Scholastic Aptitude Test is designed by the College Board, a profit-making entity worried about the rival ACT exam slipping past it in the pay-to-play testing world. In despair at the competition and overall doubts about the worth of such tests, several hundred colleges no longer require either.
The SAT redesign also responds to an industry of cram courses, prep books, and tutors that have sprung up to cater to wealthier families looking for an edge. The Khan Academy, an online teaching entity, will provide free prep courses, a blow to the costly tutorial world. Also, lowincome students can expect a waiver from test fees.
The changes should be a reminder for nervous college-bound students and their fretful families of the bigger picture. Grades, challenging courses, a balance of interests and teacher recommendations still count the most.
A national test can add to this mix, but it comes with risks about its rarefied methods and risky assumptions about the best way to measure student learning and predict the future. Test results also correlate closely with family income, another strike against the threehour-plus exams, an uncomfortable fact noted by College Board President David Coleman, who announced the changes.
The SAT is getting a useful and tough-minded rewrite, and students won’t be the only ones anxious about the result. The credibility of a venerable testing system is on the line.