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UC Panel Calls PSAT Test Unfair

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Times Staff Writer

A key faculty committee of the University of California says the method used by the National Merit Scholarship Program to select its winners is unfair, and is urging UC campuses and officials to reconsider the university’s participation.

At issue, UC officials said, is the program’s reliance on the Preliminary SAT exam -- the PSAT/NMSQT -- to determine eligibility for its prestigious college scholarships, and whether that is appropriate and fair.

“We’ve looked into it, and we don’t think it’s either,” said Michael T. Brown, a UC Santa Barbara education professor who chairs the faculty panel.

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This spring, UC’s campus and systemwide officials will look at the issue. It may set the stage for another high-stakes dispute between UC and the College Board, which owns both the PSAT and its sister exam, the SAT.

The College Board this spring introduced a new version of the SAT, largely in response to criticism from UC leaders that the old test was unfair to many students and failed to measure what they learned in school.

The new dispute, however, involves the PSAT, a test that was designed as a practice version of the SAT.

Initial eligibility for the merit scholarships is determined exclusively by a student’s score on the PSAT. About 1.3 million 11th-grade students take the PSAT each fall, with about 16,000 of those chosen as National Merit semifinalists.

The National Merit Scholarship Corp., an Illinois-based nonprofit organization, then uses other criteria, including grades, recommendations and SAT scores, to choose about 8,200 award recipients each year. The total value of the program, including scholarships sponsored by the corporation, outside companies and colleges, is about $35 million annually, said Elaine Detweiler, a spokeswoman for the scholarship corporation. The awards can range from about $500 to $10,000.

But Brown’s committee, UC’s influential Board of Admissions and Relations With Schools, said the College Board had not shown that the PSAT was a valid indicator of student merit. In letters sent March 1 to UC leaders and campus admissions officials, the panel also said the scholarship selection process appears biased against underrepresented minority and low-income students.

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Detweiler said that the PSAT was a fair, widely available way to screen the students.

Peter J. Negroni, who oversees the PSAT as a senior vice president with the College Board, said the issues raised reflected long-standing educational inequities in the nation.

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