“A new test will provide discomfort for a time and we’ll all struggle with how this compares to what we’ve known in the past.”
— Ray Brown

Questions raised on changes to SAT I
Changes to test could cause discomfort for Admissions Office
By David Reese
Staff Reporter

The proposed changes to the SAT I will not affect the TCU admission process much, but new questions will need to be addressed, said Ray Brown, dean of admissions.

The changes proposed by the head of the College Board include adding a writing test and dropping or reducing the analogy questions. The proposed changes also include toughening up the math section, which in its present form does not require students to have taken advanced courses such as Algebra II.

Brown said he wants to know how the new test scores will be compared to previous scores and if the measurements the admissions department uses now are relevant.

“A new test will provide discomfort for a time and we’ll all struggle with how this compares to what we’ve known in the past,” Brown said.

But College Board President Gaston Caperton said the changes are an important step.

College Board trustees authorized Caperton and his staff to explore the changes with College Board membership, which includes schools, colleges and universities. Recommended changes would go back to trustees for a vote in June and would go into effect no earlier than 2006.

The proposed overhaul comes more than a year after University of California President Richard Atkinson startled academia with a call for UC to drop the SAT I, the two-part verbal and math test taken by about 2 million students each year, as part of its admissions requirement.
“There is no doubt that the conversation opened by Dr. Atkinson ... spurred the College Board and the academic community to think faster than they usually do,” said Chiara Coletti, the College Board’s vice president of public affairs.

In calling for an end to the SAT I, Atkinson said students are wasting time and money prepping for the test, which has come under fire as unfair to some students.

Brown said he agrees in principle with his colleagues in California that the SAT I should be a better exam.

“Since it is expected to have a writing section, perhaps we can return to that as an important element of education, one that seems to have gone by the way in this society of faster, simpler and more superficial,” he said.

Brown said standardized exams are important in the admission process, and they take on a different weight for each applicant.

“Generally, though, it is considered to be the second most important criterion after the rigor of the high school curriculum,” he said.

Caperton said there is nothing wrong with the current test, but that the board was considering whether the changes would make it better.

“When you’re the best, the only way you stay the best is continuing improving what you’re doing. That’s our goal,” he said.

SAT I supporters say the test helps them identify students who may have benefited from grade inflation.

Critics have attacked the SAT I as culturally or gender-biased, mainly because white males tend to do better than most other groups. Test supporters contend the problem lies in an unfair public education system, not in the test.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
David Reese
d.w.reese@student.tcu.edu

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