Debate: To Keep SAT in its Current Form or Reconstruct it

Pro: Keeping the SAT in its Current Form

• Jill Dobens

• Myka Peck

• James Reid

(Pro) 1.) Successful SAT reliability and validity studies have been conducted throughout the years.

(Pro)

2.) African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians SAT scores predict a slightly higher GPA.

(Pro) 3.) Getting rid of the SAT, or re-structuring it will not necessarily guarantee increased minority or women enrollment in California’s top university.

(Pro) 4.) SAT scores are

not measures of innate ability but of aptitude

(Pro) 5.) Students who perform poorly on the current test will not fare any better than on the revised test.

Con: Reconstruct the SAT

•Jessica Flores

•Patricia Lopez

•Rose Peskin

(Con) 1.)No consensus on what the SAT really measures so validity studies aren’t really proving anything.

(Con) 2.) African American and Hispanic students do not score as well as Asian

students thus giving Asian the ethnic enrollment advantage.

(Con)3.) Without racial and ethnic

preferences to help minorities gain admissions to college, it is now important to change the test. Furthermore, it has been shown that the gap between men and women scores on the math sections continue to widen.

(Con) 4.) The test prep industry

and their courses corrupt what the exam is suppose to gage, information learned in high school.

(Con)

5.) The new SAT is intended to measure academic preparedness, not testing skills.

Rebut the Rebuttal(Pro)

(Pro)

1.) A typical finding has been that the SAT and the GRE are best at predicting first year grades in college or graduate school, with correlations ranging from about .2 to .3.

 

(Pro)

2.) For African American, Hispanics, and American Indians, the SAT predicts a higher GPA then they actually earn. With the absence of the SAT scores, the minimum GPA would be raised to 3.65.

(Pro)

3.) One study showed that gender based variations in predictive ability of the

SAT may result from other factors rather than an inherent

gender bias in the test itself.

(Pro)

4.) Studies of the effects of coaching on SAT performance have found that such efforts increase scores by an average of 15 scaled points which is the same

increase resulting from prior experiencing taking the SAT. Extensive

materials are provided without costs to anyone who has signed up to take the test.

(Pro)

5.) Some instructors are not sure a change in the SAT will be worth it.

Rebut the Rebuttal(Con)

(Con)

1.) Although studies have found correlations ranging from .2 to .3 for SAT and GRE scores predicting first year grades in college or graduate school, these correlations are rather low. Thus, efforts must be made to reconstruct the tests and produce higher correlations.

(Con)

2.) It is important to restructure the test so that it may not have any kind of ethnic bias and predict success equally well for students of all races.

(Con)

3.) The SAT doesn’t predict well for women. By and large, SAT’s are overemphasized.

(Con)

4.) The main goal is to do away with the need for coaching or practice tests. A new test should be more closely related to high school curricula.

(Con)

5.) Changing the test might improve teaching in all California schools.

 

 

References

Barnes, J.E. (2002). The SAT Revolution: The new test spells the end of IQ and big changes for American education. U. S. News and World Report, 133,51-53.

Bracey, G. W. (1993). Sex, math, and SATs. Phi Delta Kappan 74, 415-416.

Hoover, E. (2002). SAT is Set for an overhaul, but questions linger about the test.The Chronicle of Higher Education, 48, 35-36.

Marx, P. (2002). Why we need the SAT: The chronicle of higher education. Washington, 48.