The president of the University of California system, contending that an
overemphasis on college-entrance exams has led to "the educational
equivalent of a nuclear arms race," last week proposed eliminating SAT
scores as a requirement for admission to the 170,000-student system. ....
Corporate executives from Sears Roebuck and Co., Verizon Communications,
Bank of America, and other high-profile companies have sent a strongly
worded letter urging college and university presidents to stop
overemphasizing tests such as the SAT in admissions decisions. ....
The SAT not only is a solid measure of students' academic performance in
their first year of college, it also can predict performance throughout a
college career, according to an analysis that looks at more than 1,700
studies examining the test over the past 50 years.
Commissioned by the College Board, the New York City-based organization
that owns the college-entrance test that some 1.3 million students took
last year, the study uses a statistical method called meta-analysis to
review the prior research on the SAT conducted by the College Board,
university researchers, and others from the 1940s through the late 1990s.
....
John Katzman, the founder and chief executive officer of the Princeton
Review, a New York City-based company that is a leading provider of
test-preparation services, expressed deep skepticism about the new analysis
commissioned by the College Board.
"The SAT is under attack because it predicts so little and costs so much,"
Mr. Katzman said. "I'm a suspicious guy when it comes to the College
Board. ....