Kill the SAT

Dwelling
Assets
Kill the SAT

The college software process wants a do-over. And quick.

There are so many infuriating elements to this spring’s Operation Varsity Blues scandal, the place one-percenter parents got nabbed for cheating and bribing to get their babies into elite faculties. It’s tough to rank the egregious behaviors, but one that’s near the top for me is how they so easily gamed the standardized testing trade.

Here’s the long story brief: Parents paid for fixers to assist with, and in some circumstances to take, exams for college kids to make sure a “Goldilocks” score for his or her most popular faculty-not too low to shut them out but not too excessive to lift suspicions. Add these crimes to other recent SAT testing scandals in Asia and the Harvard University discrimination lawsuits, and it turns into clear this anachronistic assessment system needs to go away-sooner moderately than later.

As the dad or mum of a graduating senior who did all the suitable issues-including finding out for and sweating out the PSAT/SAT course of over three years-I watched how these percentiles and level tallies take precedence over different software details like further-curricular actions and essays when plugged into The Widespread Software (one other system that wants a protracted exhausting look). And whereas a rising variety of schools declare their admissions process is test-rating-free-greater than a thousand schools, in response to FairTest: The National Middle for Truthful and Open Testing-the actual fact stays that test scores are nonetheless a serious, inaccurate measuring stick. The info is flawed.

The obvious repair? New assessment platforms that may analyze and measure a student’s primary grasp of topics whereas at the identical time showcasing his or her skills and personality. For years, Tech and Studying has defined those technologies as digital or ePortfolios. And whereas many faculties and districts already use these applied sciences and strategies in their own assessments, faculties don’t appear to take them into consideration of their purposes.

Take Keith McBrayer’s work, for example (https://www.bulbapp.com/kmcbray (opens in new tab)). Keith, who is at the moment a junior on the University of Texas, just lately walked me through his own portfolio utilizing the Bulb platform, which he started in highschool and continues to construct by means of school. Past assignments and initiatives are rigorously organized into categories he defined. He makes use of audio and video to give the presentations. Most impressively, he includes his reflections on every performance to make clear why it's included within the portfolio. This kind of reflection is perhaps the most precious a part of any portfolio, because it offers a much clearer window into the learning of every scholar.

And the way a lot did it assist him get into UT? “It didn’t,” he says. And when my own daughter went to add YouTube movies to complement a few of her essays, it was unclear whether or not or not those hyperlinks had been reside. However these SAT scores? They’re automatically poured in. We’re encouraging students to make use of new instruments and strategies, however we’re neglecting to include them into what may be their most necessary evaluation. Tying merchandise like Bulb into a standardized software system like the Common App shouldn’t be that tough. Having a student’s Instagram and Twitter account links as a part of their software ought to be requisite. Judging a student primarily based on arbitrary bubble assessments is clearly incorrect. Let’s get it right.