College Board

What IS the SAT Testing?

As far as I can tell, pretty much everyone hates the SAT: parents, educators, students.*

The College Board says that the SAT tests "the skills you're learning in school: reading, writing and math."

Is that accurate? If I were to answer that question today, completely honestly, I'd say "in an ideal world." And then I might add, "unfortunately."

Our local high school principal sent out a newsletter a few months ago questioning the validity of the SAT as a measure of a school's success. "A bit of research indicates that nothing could be further from the truth," he wrote.

Six months into this Perfect Score Project, I'd say the SAT tests, in a very deep way: vocabulary, grammar, an ability to critically read with precision, sensitivity and depth. It tests basic math skills, but more than that, it tests your ability to know math so well that you can be flexible with the knowledge and use it in all sorts of unfamiliar contexts.

For more in depth perspectives on what the SAT is really testing, I suggest reading these posts: PWNtheSAT and Erica Meltzer.

* I happen to love the SAT, but that's another story, which is coming soon.

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

10 Comments | posted June 30th, 2011

Anonymous

Debbie, I'm sorry, this is SO awful, but the test-writer in me can't resist: "In an ideal world, which is not reality" is a brilliant example of an ACT-style redundancy. I know you did it for emphasis, but It's so good that I may have to use it on a test sometime. Please forgive me, I've spent too much time doing this stuff.
- http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier
  
  It's all yours ;)
Anonymous

I was giving my 3 1/2 year old a bath tonight listening to her mangle her pronouns - "Mama I found a slug today! I love he! Me is his Mama. I want to take he home for I and Daddy and Tigger!" - and I was thinking I should take a video of it to use for my students b/c I can never come up with good bad stuff on the fly. Hmmm....child exploitation or just good use of resources?????
- Anonymous
  
  Ha! If you think a 3 1/2 year-old doing that is funny, you should see it with a 6'4 16 year-old. A couple of years ago, one of my students decided it would be utterly hilarious to start switching his pronouns while we worked, and watching a kid that size loudly announce, "Mother, me would like a glass of water" was priceless.
- http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier
  
  I think it would be adorable. And I think she'll love it later in life to.
Akil

Whats really telling here how far off schools are in their hated of the test. Your newsletter said questioned the validity of the SAT to measure "school success." Newsflash: ITS NOT INTENDED TO.

The problem i think is that people confuse the use of the scores with the intent of the test. The SAT is the NFL combine, its the NBA All-Star Skills competition or the dunk contest. It tests one set of skills and if you do not have those skills (or cant apply them in timed settings) then you will be screwed, but its only intended to reflect one set of skills and HELP predict success in the FIRST year of college.

The bigger issue to me is the weight put on SAT scores by some colleges. Excluding kids on the basis of SAT scores is much like saying Lebron James is a terrible basketball player because he underperformed in this year's finals (let the fun begin!)
- http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier
  
  I think they've done studies now that extend the SAT scores as a predictor of success beyond the first year of college. I saw it somewhere on the College Board site.
  
  Personally, I do think that the skills on the SAT are skills that are used in college -- so to me, it does make sense to make the connection and factor that in to a decision -- and I say this as a mother of a teen who refuses to study for the SATs and will most likely not do well as a result. He'll have to take his lumps, and I'll have to pray that it's all going to be ok anyway.
  
  That said, someone can perform badly on an SAT one day (and take it again), and even if they perform badly over and over again -- because they don't know the material -- it's still possible to catch up once you are in college. I'm living proof of that.
  
  That said, you probably have to run faster and be more determined than if you'd been properly prepared (and educated) in high school the first place.
http://twitter.com/SheldonWordNerd Sheldon the WordNerd

There's a lot of shouting from teachers and parents that teaching students "facts" and testing their knowledge squelches curiosity and impedes "true" learning (despite the fact that all the cognitive research actually points to facts and testing improving learning!). I wrote a blog post on it a while back if you're interested: http://www.word-nerd.com/pt/blog/default.aspx?id=56&t=Google-is-not-a-substitute-for-an-educat

Is the SAT so maligned because it does require factual knowledge (grammar rules, vocab and math)? Does its bad rep come from the fact that you're not allowed to Google while taking it? :) The SAT bashing crescendo has been rising along with the "learning facts is a waste of time" movement. No clue if they're related, but it's interesting. (Another issue is that no one can tolerate their kids being "average," and on the SAT, 2/3 of kids will score in the average range, but that's a topic for another day.)

The SAT isn't perfect, but I don't really think it has much to do with the test itself. The most valid criticisms are external, i.e. quality of schooling available to students, access to test prep, inappropriate use of scores, etc. Let's work on those issues rather than focusing on the test so much.
- http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier
  
  I think that probably every reason in your middle paragraph is accurate.
  
  And I agree with your third paragraph 100%. Headed over to read your post now. Thanks.
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