A Futile Attempt

As the countdown to the implementation of the new SAT draws to a close, it is once again time to bring up the concerns raised by the new format—especially at a university where SAT scores carry a great weight in the admissions process.

The new SAT, which will go into effect in March 2005, has been in development for several years. The highly publicized changes include the elimination of the analogy and comparative response sections and the addition of a writing section. The new SAT will be out of 2400 points, instead of the traditional 1600. Furthermore, the writing sample composed as part of the SAT will eventually be posted online for colleges to see.

It has been argued that the new SAT will remove the advantage that wealthy students have traditionally had on the test, outperforming their poorer counterparts. However, this argument clearly overlooks the necessary factors to scoring well on an essay on a standardized test. The weight of cultural gaps as well as monetary ones will be increased by the addition of the essay because the ability of one to write a high-scoring essay will be sorely hindered by language barriers and cultural barriers. The margin for error increases exponentially.

Writing an essay on the spot requires having a firm grasp of English and all its grammatical rules and nuances at one’s fingertips. One group of students who are likely to have trouble with one or both of these skills is students for whom English is a second language and not spoken at home. Wealthier students are more likely to have parents who speak English at home. And they are more likely to have leisure time to study, as opposed to having to work at a part-time job after school.

Another advantage of wealth is tutoring. Tutoring has always been a way for students to gain an edge on the SATs. Wealthier students can more readily afford such assistance, as well as better tailor it to their needs. Many SAT tutors charge exorbitantly high amounts of money for their services. These fees are well worth it to parents who believe that a high SAT score is their son or daughter’s ticket to colleges like Harvard—but sadly out of reach for many more.

The new format of the SAT will only increase the need for tutoring and the importance of attending an elite high school. Schools with smaller classes have been shown to assign more essays and writing assignments than those with large class sizes. Furthermore, writing skills can be taught and students will soon be attending classes in large numbers to learn how to write exactly what the colleges want to hear. That is, students who can afford to do so—wealthier ones.

As a result, the new SAT will only increase the magnitude of the problem it was created to reduce. The SAT will still be biased towards wealthy students. Instead, the solution should be focused on the schools themselves, and on reducing the role of the SATs in the first place. The money invested in standardized testing could find a much better use by being invested back into the schools, and no student’s future should ever be dependent on one standardized test. Institutions such as the University of California schools, Bates and the University of Chicago do not require SAT scores from applicants.

Other institutions would be wise to follow their example. Until then, and especially while tutoring remains an important part of the system, the SATs will be inherently biased towards the wealthy.

Reva P. Minkoff ’08, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Canaday Hall.