Myths and Tradeoffs The Role of Tests in Undergraduate Admissions (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 3-9
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From page 3... ...
Standardized tests were first used for selection for the civil service and other employment, but their potential value in education was quickly apparent. As student populations grew in the early years of the century, both secondary school and college officials sought means of introducing order in a haphazard system.
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From page 4... ...
. On average, a college degree offers significant economic and social benefits, and the proportion of high school graduates seeking these benefits has been growing steadily during the twentieth century (National Center for Education Statistics, 1998a:1-2~.
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From page 5... ...
. Thus, a fundamental distinction between the two tests is that the SAT was originally intended to help colleges identify the ablest students for admission to elite institutions, and the ACT was originally intended to provide fairly detailed profiles of the full range of students, to help both students and colleges determine the best academic path for each student.
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From page 6... ...
The steering committee has been guided in its deliberations about these uses by general criteria for appropriate test use that have been defined in the context of previous work by The Board on Testing and Assessment. Of those criteria, the two most relevant to admissions testing are that a test's validity can be understood only in the context of the purpose for which it is being used, and that"no single test score can be considered a definitive measure of a student's knowledge" (National Research Council, 1999:2-3~.
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From page 7... ...
If one views the test score gap as valuable evidence of differing likelihoods of academic success in college for different groups, then relying on the scores as an element in selection makes sense. If, however, one views the gap as a reflection of differences in prior accomplishment, then that use may be questioned.
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From page 8... ...
Although findings such as these have not been linked to college admissions tests, they do demonstrate the complexity of the discussions of academic merit and the role of tests in defining it. More practically, the existence of score gaps, particularly between black and white students, is one key reason that affirmative action programs were developed and are so controversial since colleges have long sought both academic merit and diverse student populations.8 Since academic merit has increasingly been defined by test scores, the gap in test performance has made these goals seem starkly opposed.
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From page 9... ...
Colleges throughout the nation are reevaluating their admissions policies in light of the outcomes of court cases and voters' mandates and waiting to see what effects the changes will have on the institutions that are subject to them. Many colleges want to know whether they are vulnerable to legal challenge themselves, and many are also taking the opportunity to reflect more broadly on their reasons for seeking culturally and ethnically diverse student populations, the goals underlying their admissions practices, and the extent to which their practices serve their goals.
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