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A Two-Track SAT Test Is Needed

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Kevin Zhou is a junior at Monte Vista High School in Danville, Calif.

On March 12, high school juniors like me will be the first students to take the new SAT. Proponents of the test argue that the changes in it will reduce the “coachability” of the exam and better align it with high school curricula. Unfortunately, the College Board’s revisions only introduce new problems and further widen the gap between underprivileged students and affluent ones.

It is commendable that the College Board has finally decided to fix one of the flaws in the old SAT by placing a greater emphasis on writing. The California Department of Education reported in 2004 that more than 68% of all high school juniors were at or below the basic level of the California STAR test’s English-language arts portion. Because this section includes a significant amount of writing, it is evident that the quality of high schoolers’ writing in the state is inadequate. But the new writing section is not the right solution.

In the new test, students will have only 25 minutes to compose an essay on topics such as “What is your view on the idea that it takes failure to achieve success?” This rapid approach requires only superficial analysis, and it also eliminates the critical proofreading phase of the writing process. And, according to one report, the test graders will not necessarily require multiple examples supporting the student’s thesis. So a student can receive a high mark (grading is on scale of 1 to 6) even if he or she provides only one example.

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Clearly, the writing section of the new SAT must be completely overhauled to give students sufficient time to adequately develop their ideas, as well as requiring them to demonstrate that they have mastered rhetorical devices and proper diction.

However, simply amending the writing section of the new SAT will do nothing to lessen the gap in test scores between the affluent students and the poorer students. Though the wealthier students who have adequately learned the curriculum should take a revised version of the new SAT, indigent students who feel they have not been adequately prepared -- and after consulting with teachers, parents and counselors -- should be allowed to take an alternative aptitude test.

Achievement tests like the SAT are inherently biased against poorer students. Affluent students enjoy the benefits of newer textbooks and more experienced teachers; students in poorer school districts must endure the consequences of reductions in education funding, as well as the hardships often associated with urban life.

Wealthier students also can afford to attend expensive prep classes, some of which promise to raise their scores by more than 200 points on the new SAT.

The College Board should institute an aptitude test that equitably measures underprivileged students and levels the playing field in the college admissions process. Rather than testing these students on subjects that they often have been inadequately taught, offering aptitude tests that gauge the innate abilities of individual students would be fairer.

Sections in the old SAT did this -- those that required the use of logic, such as the analogies portion, had a smaller gap between affluent and poor students than the other parts of the test.

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Further, a study conducted by David Lohman, a psychology professor at the University of Iowa, determined that the gap between disadvantaged minorities and whites on cognitive-abilities tests was significantly lower than the gap on curriculum-based tests.

The results from such aptitude tests would allow colleges to better determine which students have the potential to learn the curriculum if they are given adequate resources.

In the meantime, the College Board must adopt a two-track approach to correct the problems in the new SAT: Revise the test’s flawed writing section and introduce an aptitude test that more fairly tests poor students.

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