NEW APPROACH - The New SAT

"As the SAT evolves, so do opinions on its value" by Kenya Downs, PBS NewsHour 3/8/2016

Excerpt

Thousands of high school students piled into test centers early March as the first group to take the new, revamped SAT.  The College Board, which administers the test, promises a more comprehensive, modern evaluation of potential college success.  However, as April Brown reports, this new initiative isn't without controversy and push back.  That's to be expected of a national college-readiness assessment with a unique evolution.

The SAT has a mysterious past:

According to PBS's Frontline, the early days of the SAT had little to do with college prep at all.  In fact, it was more about staffing the U.S. military with intellectually sound personnel.  The origins of the SAT date back to World War I when Robert Yerkes, an I.Q. test professional, convinced the U.S. Army to test new recruits.  Originally called Army Alpha, it was the first I.Q. test to be administered to the masses.  Yerkes' assistant, Carl Brigham, further developed Army Alpha to make it harder and eventually worked with colleges to adapt the test for all would-be college students and scholarship seekers.

So why is it mysterious?  The College Board will neither confirm nor deny this version of the SAT's origins.  Here's what their senior vice president did say:

“Well, the early days of psychometrics was certainly driven by this concept of aptitude and recognizing individuals who had the aptitude to do well.  This worked very well, particularly for those students attending secondary schools that were not well-known to colleges and universities in being able to identify students that have the potential to be successful at college.”

– James Montoya, senior vice president at College Board,

Here's where the SAT stands now:

There are many changes in the new version of the SAT, including a focus on content students are more likely to find in college and adult life.  That includes streamlined sections, a more contemporary vocabulary test and no more penalties for guessing.

Many test-prep experts say the new SAT now looks more like its competitor, the ACT, which more students have opted to take in recent years.  And it's no coincidence.  The SAT is losing market share to the ACT and has come under fire not only for its expense, but access.  One of the many criticisms of the SAT is that the test creates a disadvantage for women, minorities and the poor who are less likely to afford the costly prep courses.  The College Board aimed to tackle this by partnering with the Khan Academy, a online educational service, to offer free test-prep.

But just days before the new test was administered, several would-be test-takers were uninvited.  The College Board sent a letter to some who signed up saying they've been bumped until May.  The board cited a “new security measure,” but most of those uninvited guests are actually test-prep professionals.  Patrick Bock, a professional tutor who's taken older versions of the SAT more than a dozen times, believes it was tactical.  “They don't want really bad press from experts who understand testing,” he said.  “[Test-prep experts] skewer the tests for questions that aren't quite where they need to be.”

Does the SAT have a viable future?

Some colleges are completely opting out of the SAT and ACT as a requirement for admission altogether.  The premise isn't entirely new.  According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, more than 850 colleges and universities nationwide are now test-optional.  Bates College first became test-optional in 1984 and Wake Forest University was the first major school to ditch test requirements in 2008.

Research has shown that standardized tests like the ACT and SAT aren't viable indicators of college readiness or success, and that going test-optional boosts student diversity.  So now more schools are following suit.  The University of Delaware announced in February that their admissions will become test-optional for in-state students beginning in the fall and George Washington University became the largest institution to jump on board last year.  Vice provost Laurie Koehler said they made the decision in order to improve diversity.  And so far it's worked:

Applications to George Washington University Since Going Test-Optional

Overall applications up 28%

Minority applicants up 30%

First-generation applicants up 35%

Male applicants up 23%

Female applicants up 32%
“We did see more than 28 percent increase in our applications,” she said.  “But what was striking was the numbers of first generation students, or underrepresented, multicultural students who submitted applications – nearly 1,100 more in each of those populations.”

The numbers are still preliminary and don't indicate how many of those new applicants were actually accepted.  Still, even with the College Board's push to improve formatting, access and affordability, a spike in diverse applicants to test-optional schools could spell trouble for the SAT and its competitor the ACT in the future.

EDUCATION - American Students and in Afghanistan

"What will Obama’s new testing plan mean for American students?" PBS NewsHour 10/25/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Obama on Saturday called on states to cut back on standardized testing for U.S. school kids, who, on average, take eight of them every year, from pre-K through 12th grade every year.  The Obama administration also released a testing action plan with new guidelines.  Kate Zernike of The New York Times joins William Brangham to discuss.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  President Obama and the federal Department of Education are calling on states to cut back on standardized tests in schools.  U.S. school kids from pre-K through 12th grade, on average, take eight standardized tests every year.  That’s almost one test a month during the school year.

In a Facebook video yesterday, the President said teachers have told him the pressure to teach to those tests — quote — “takes the joy out of teaching and learning.”

His administration has now released a testing action plan with new guidelines.

For more insight on that, I’m joined by Kate Zernike of The New York Times.

Welcome.

KATE ZERNIKE, National Correspondent, The New York Times:  Thank you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  So, this is a pretty big statement from the president on this very contentious issue.  Why — why is he coming out now?

KATE ZERNIKE:  Well, I think they wanted to get past the spring testing push last year, or this — or this year.

But I think, also, there was a report coming out from the Council of the Great City Schools, which is a coalition of about 70 urban school districts.  And they have generally been pro-testing.  But their superintendent set out to find out how many tests the kids are taking.

And what they found, the report also came out yesterday — or Saturday — was that there are just are — that, as you said, there are, you know, eight tests a year.  There’s just so many — so many people are calling for so many different tests, that a lot of these tests are — they’re not only onerous, but they’re sort of pointless and purposeless.  They’re not really tied to what we want them to be tied to, to learning in the classroom.

"Afghanistan’s first women and gender studies program now in session" PBS NewsHour 10/25/2015

MEGAN THOMPSON (NewsHour):  Twenty-eight students at Kabul University filed for a first-of-its-kind class for Afghanistan.

It’s the introductory course in a new master’s degree program in gender and women’s studies in a county that has long struggled to provide equal rights to women.

When the Taliban seized power in 1996, the hard-line Islamist regime banned women and girls from going to school, having jobs outside the home, or even stepping out in public without being covered head to toe in a burqa.

After the U.S.-led invasion after 9/11 toppled the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan’s new constitution guaranteed women’s rights.

There’s been progress, but many Afghan women remain marginalized, and violence against women has been on the rise.

For example, earlier this year, an angry mob beat a 27-year-old female law student to death in the center of Kabul, the nation’s capital.

Protesters renewed calls for the government to do more to protect women.

Still, millions of Afghan girls and women have gone back to school, their access to higher education remains limited.

One Islamic studies (knuckle-dragging Neanderthal, IMHO) professor at Kabul University disapproves of the new women’s studies program there, because, he said, women are not, in fact, equal to men.

Students in the two-year program hope to change those beliefs.

ZHEELA RAFHAT, STUDENT:  This gender program is really needed in Afghanistan, because many women do not know about their rights, so through this program, we can make women aware of their rights, which enables them to work and study in this society, and we also want to tell women that you are not only made for housework.

MEGAN THOMPSON:  The university expects these empowered graduate students to spread that message beyond these classroom walls.

EDUCATION - Anti-Standardized Testing Movement

"What galvanized standardized testing’s opt-out movement" PBS NewsHour 5/26/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As the school year draws to a close, many students are taking standardized tests tied to the Common Core.  But in some communities there has been a strong backlash, with parents deciding to opt out of having their children participate.  The NewsHour’s William Brangham talks to special correspondent for education John Merrow and Motoko Rich of The New York Times.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  Parents, in fact, are deciding to opt out.  More specifically, their children are simply not taking year-end standardized tests, such as the PARCC exam or another one known as Smarter Balanced.

The movement has been relatively small in total numbers.  But it picked up a lot of support this year in places like New York State, where as many as 165,000 students opted out.  In New Jersey, 15 percent of the high schoolers who were slated to take the tests chose not to do so.  It’s also been an issue in Florida and elsewhere.

We fill in the picture with John Merrow, our special correspondent for education, who reported on this earlier this spring, and Motoko Rich, a national education reporter for The New York Times who has been covering this.

Motoko Rich, I would like to start with you.

I wonder if you could tell me, this movement seemingly came out of — somewhat come out of nowhere.  We have had standardized testing for a fairly long time.  I wonder, why this moment?  What are the concerns, and why have they sprung up now?

MOTOKO RICH, The New York Times:  Well, I think there have been — it’s sort of a perfect storm of concern, so it’s not just about testing.  A lot of people that I talked to said, it’s not the test themselves that they object to.  It’s what they’re being used for and what they’re based on.

So, we first had this movement to introduce new academic standards known as the Common Core, which were adopted by more than 40 states.  And, in general, they’re much more rigorous than the standards that came before.  And so in the development of new tests to measure whether or not students were reaching those standards and whether teachers were teaching to those standards, the tests became harder.

And when they were first administered in New York State, the proportion of students that passed these tests fell fairly drastically.  So, you used to have something like 70 percent or 80 percent of students were passing the test, and then it dropped to about 30 percent.  So, that really created a lot of concern.  And that was last year.

So, this year, when the test was administered, I think there was already a lot of anxiety out there.  And then, on top of that, Governor Cuomo here in New York decided that he wanted to make teacher evaluations more rigorous.  And he was concerned that so many teachers had been rated as effective or highly effective the year earlier.

And so he proposed that 50 percent of their evaluations be based on the student test scores.  And I think that was really the moment that galvanized a lot of parents and teachers who were talking to the parents to say, wait a minute.  That’s not what we want the test to be used for.

As it turned out, that proposal didn’t pass, but, by then, I think there had been a lot of momentum about it.  A lot of parents were concerned that these tests were being used in a way that they didn’t deem appropriate.

EDUCATION - Is Standardized Testing a Failure?

"Is ‘The Test’ failing American schools?" PBS NewsHour 1/22/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As Congress considers revisions to the No Child Left Behind education law, there’s a larger debate about the role and efficacy of using standardized tests as assessment.  Anya Kamenetz, author of “The Test:  Why Our Schools Are Obsessed With Standardized Testing, But You Don't Have To Be,” joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the evolving role of testing and the “big, unintended consequences.”

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  As Congress begins to tackle a new federal education law that would succeed No Child Left Behind, one of the major dividing lines is already clear.  What is the proper role and use of testing?

It’s a question that has long touched a raw nerve among parents and educators.

A new book explores that controversy and testing’s possible future.

Hari Sreenivasan has our conversation from our New York studios.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  On the one hand, parents know their children’s talents can’t be quantified by multiple choice tests.  At the same time, they often want their children to do well on high-stakes exams.

A new book explores those issues and a growing backlash against testing in many circles.  It’s called “The Test:  Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing, But You Don’t Have to Be.”

COMMENT:  The problem with standardized tests is, like many things, the money connect with it.  It is tying the test results to school funding.  These tests should only be used to compare a particular school to others in a state and the nation.  To answer the question "can my school do better?"  To see what schools work well and those who don't.