New York Times Finally Admits The Left’s War On Standardized Tests Was ‘Misguided’
The Times concludes that the left's war on SATs has failed to make higher education more 'equitable' and has done a disservice to disadvantaged students.The Times concludes that the left's war on SATs has failed to make higher education more 'equitable' and has done a disservice to disadvantaged students.Why ChatGPT Could Actually Be A Good Thing For High School English
The more we write, the stronger our minds become, making us better communicators, planners, analysts, creators, critics — just better human beings overall.Vivek Ramaswamy suggests adding athletic component to the SAT
Author and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is currently running in the Republican presidential primary, has suggested that the organization behind the SAT should add an athletic component to the exam.
Many colleges consider applicants' SAT scores when making admissions decisions, but the test currently does not measure prospective students' physical conditioning. According to satsuite.collegeboard.org, the SAT consists of three sections: "the Reading Test," "the Writing and Language Test," and "the Math Test."
"Now that the Supreme Court finally ended affirmative action, colleges will only further deprioritize SAT scores in favor of subjective factors because of large racial disparities in test results. There's a simple way forward that will drive excellence and diversity of talent among incoming college classes: the College Board should add a physical fitness section to the SAT, instead of just math and reading sections. This could mirror the 'Presidential Fitness Test' – consisting of a 1-mile run, pull-ups, sit-ups, shuttle run, etc. – regularly administered across American high schools until the Obama White House disband it," Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X.
"This is a pro-merit solution that rewards diverse talents: it's a fact that those who perform well on math & reading tests tend to perform more poorly on the 1-mile run, and vice versa. This would also help address a growing mental health crisis in our country: physical fitness correlates directly with lower rates of depression, anxiety, and drug use. This is not formally part of my Presidential platform but it's a serious proposal to address multiple cultural & health challenges with a single actionable step: most solutions shouldn't come top-down from government," he added.
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Florida is poised to accept 'classic' learning test that focuses on the Western intellectual tradition
Florida is poised to become the first state to embrace the un-woke Classic Learning Test for public college admissions.
It comes down to a vote by the State University System of Florida's Board of Governors later this month, after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis already ratified legislation in May, authorizing school districts to select the CLT as an alternative to the SAT or ACT for administration to public school students in grade 11.
As with many initiatives that hearken back to the West's once and future cultural greatness or inspire confidence in the tradition of America's forebears, critics have suggested that it is problematic to place emphasis on Western and European thought, reported Axios.
Julian Vasquez Heilig, provost and vice president at Western Michigan University, has suggested that "classical education is really a wolf in sheep's clothing," adding, "what it's about is using selective Western thinkers to foment a specific moral ideology."
Other critics suggest it is part of an "attempt by Florida Republicans to reshape the state's education system, basing it on more conservative teachings," reported NewsNation.
Like the SAT and ACT standardized tests, the CLT, launched in 2015 and used early on by homeschooling families, assesses students' reading, grammar, and math skills, emphasizing foundational reading skills.
Besides consisting of only 120 questions and taking two hours to complete, the test differs greatly from others in that it focuses on "meaningful pieces of literature that have stood the rest of time."
The Tampa Bay Times reported that the test is rooted in the classical education model, focusing on the "centrality of the Western tradition."
Jeremy Tate, the founder and president of the CLT, told the Florida Standard that the College Board, which administers the SAT, "is a pretty radical organization. They don't try to hide it. ... They're very much one-sided [politically]. Most of the source material leans heavily into 20th century progressives and they really ignore the Western intellectual tradition that was foundational for America."
Rather than cramming in preparation for an engagement with the writ of middling leftist intellectuals and literary unknowns, students who take the CLT will instead enjoy exposure to Western greats, from Aristotle and Plutarch of antiquity, to St. Thomas Aquinas and Geoffrey Chaucer of the Middle Ages, all the way to modern American giants like Thomas Jefferson.
The stated purpose of this particular test is to "reconnect knowledge and virtue by providing meaningful assessments and connections to seekers of truth, goodness, and beauty."
Clay Daniel, founder of Clayborne Test Prep and Tutoring, told BestColleges, "It doesn't feel like you're just taking a multiple-choice test because, in the process, you might be comparing the work of Plato and the Federalist Papers, and really thinking about the interplay between the two. It's kind of a rich experience, taking the test, which isn't something that you normally associate with standardized tests."
Having an alternative to the ACT and SAT is critical, according to both Tate and the CLT.
CLT notes on its site that "standardized testing provides an invaluable opportunity to engage students with the texts and authors that have shaped history and culture," especially since teachers have the tendency to "teach towards the test."
Tate suggested that it was long understood that the "goal of education was always about human formation, especially the cultivation of virtue. ... It's why you educated the next generation. You're passing down an inheritance. You're teaching them integrity."
While the CLT seeks to once again pursue this goal, Tate has indicated that is not a common aim among all examiners and educators.
"That purpose for education has been lost in this age of credentialing," said Tate. "It's just about college and career readiness."
The Pensacola News Journal reported that there are presently four CLT exams students can take: CLT, the college entrance exam for grades 11 and 12; CLT 10, the college preparatory exam for grades 9 and 10; CLT 8, the high school readiness program for grades 7 and 8; and CLT 2-6, a diagnostic exam for grades 3-6.
Over 100,000 CLT tests have been administered so far.
Presently, over 200 colleges and universities accept CLT scores in the United States and in Canada, including Hillsdale College, Baylor University Honors College, and John Brown University. Many of the schools appear to be religiously oriented.
New College of Florida became the first public university in the state to accept the CLT as an alternative to the SAT and ACT in May, with Richard Corcoran, interim president, noting it was "an exciting step for educational choice and freedom in our state as well."
In addition to ratifying a bill funding all school districts in Florida to use the CLT for 11th-graders back in May, DeSantis also enabled the CLT to be used by students in order to qualify for the state's Bright Futures college scholarship.
Axios reported that the Florida Board of Governors is expected to vote on Aug. 30 concerning CLT adoption.
According to board spokesman Altony Lee III, if adopted at the end of the month, then universities could start accepting CLT scores for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.
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America’s Hatred For Merit Is Leading Us To Total Incompetence
What we should expect in the coming years is a widespread crisis of competence afflicting every nook and cranny of American life.We Can Dump The Useless, Politicized SAT Without Dumping Standardized Testing Altogether
States are realizing there is a much-needed alternative to today's watered-down, useless standardized tests: the Classic Learning Test.Dumbing Down The SAT Perfectly Sums Up The State Of American Education
These pointless changes to the SAT will let schools off the hook, and allow College Board to make money and virtue signal at the same time.The SAT goes fully digital in bid to stay relevant and accommodate modern sensitivities by making it less stressful
Gone are the days of scrambling to find a No. 2 pencil with a decent eraser as the College Board moves to implement completely digital standardized testing. The education system of yore continues to become a distant memory.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that by 2024 the scholastic aptitude test — commonly referred to as the SAT — will be solely a digital examination. Students will be expected to complete the SAT on either a laptop or tablet device in a proctored testing center.
The test’s new digital format will be two hours instead of three, shorten reading passages, and allow students to use calculators throughout the entirety of the math section.
The College Board reports that 80% of students who took the digital test in 2021 found it to be less stressful.
One sixteen-year-old student said, “I definitely preferred that format with the shorter passages, just because it was a lot easier to read and easier to stay focused.”
The College Board is working to make the SAT more relevant as fewer American universities weigh standardized test scores when considering a student’s acceptance. The University of California system announced in 2021 that it would stop considering SAT and ACT scores when determining a student's acceptance since they are “racist metrics.”
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple prestigious American universities announced that they would not require students to submit SAT or ACT scores due to the “extraordinary circumstance” facing them.
However, in recent years, standardized tests have received intense criticism from people who characterize them as unfair to poor and minority students who may not have access to expensive test preparation materials.
Ibram X. Kendi, author of "How to Be an Anti-Racist" and "Stamped from the Beginning," said in October 2020 that “standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools.”
In response to charges such as Kendi’s, the American university system has not only been disregarding standardized test scores of prospective students but has begun to actively discriminate against demographics of students who routinely perform well on them.
In 2020, Asian students scored in the 78th percentile of the ACT but faced discrimination when applying for admittance to Ivy League universities. A two-year investigation into Yale University found that race — not aptitude — is the “determinative factor in hundreds of admissions decisions each year.” This practice of racially selective admission violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In response to this illegal discrimination, the United States Department of Justice sued Yale and Harvard University. The Harvard discrimination suit revealed that Asian applicants had to reach higher standardized test scores than students from other racial groups.
By the summer of 2021, more than 1,500 four-year colleges announced that they would not require standardized test scores for entry.
Despite its bid to remain relevant and accommodate modern sensitivities, it appears that the SAT has an uphill battle.
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