Food For Thought

One of the attributes I try to instill in my students is that of critical thinking: the reflective and intellectually disciplined process of deconstructing, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information and situations, avoiding the initial, obvious knee-jerk reaction. However, like most college professors, I am afflicted with "do as I say, not as I do" syndrome. Case in point:

SAT scores hit a four-decade low

Reading scores on the SAT for the high school class of 2012 reached a four-decade low, putting a punctuation mark on a gradual decline in the ability of college-bound teens to read passages and answer questions about sentence structure, vocabulary and meaning on the college entrance exam.

OMG!!! It's obviously all the fault of that ridiculous Department of Education and those damn teachers unions.

Well, upon further review it seems that there might be a few more contributory factors.

Many experts attribute the continued decline to record numbers of students taking the test, including about one-quarter from low-income backgrounds. There are many factors that can affect how well a student scores on the SAT, but few are as strongly correlated as family income.

There is a significant correlation between family income and test scores on the SAT, with average scores increasing with every $20,000 in additional family income.

Okay, that's a fair point. If more students from lower-income households are taking the exam, and if there is a correlation between household income and scores, then it is reasonable to conclude that more lower income students taking the exam will result in lower scores. But why?

Some argue that it's due to the 'privileged' students participating in activities that serve to better prepare them for the test, such as school organizations and clubs, summer camps, a better study environment, even tutors and prep classes. Another argument is that students from two-parent families are statistically more likely to do better, and that two-parent families generally have more household income, or at least one parent who's more involved with the kids while the other works.

But in any event, it is clear that the national trend is disturbing, and should serve as “a call to action,” College Board President Gaston Caperton said. “When less than half of kids who want to go to college are prepared to do so, that system is failing.”

Trust me, I've seen the end result of the public school pipeline. It is not encouraging.

Another thing to think about: what is the true purpose of the SAT exam? Most people's first response would be "to help decide which students should be admitted to college". But think a little deeper about that answer, and you'll soon realize that the underlying purpose of the exam is to predict which students are most likely to succeed in college. That's not quite the same thing as using it as some form of admittance criteria. So if the true purpose is to identify those students most likely to succeed, might not there be a better way?

Studies say the SAT and ACT do not predict first-year college success — the reason colleges give for requiring them — as well as high school grade point averages do. GPA also predicts college graduation rates better. The effort students put into learning during the school year, as assessed by their teachers, turns out to mean more than a four-hour test graded mostly by machines.

Other alternatives?

Why not replace the SAT and ACT with Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Advanced International Certificate of Education tests? Those exams culminate college-level courses and encourage critical thinking. They require that students write many of their answers in detail.

Students who have taken those courses and exams will tell you they were good preparation for college. Unlike the SAT and ACT, they are modeled after college exams and graded by human beings.

Of course, this is like arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. The real problem is not the demographic composition of SAT-takers, or whether the SAT is the best way to screen college applicants. The real problem is that our public school system is doing a dismal job of educating America's children.

And I put the blame for that squarely on that ridiculous Department of Education and those damn teachers unions...

For a truly insightful perspective on a major -- maybe even the major -- problem with our public school system, read this (there's an excerpt below, but trust me, you want to read the entire thing).

AMERICAN EDUCATION IS IN SERIOUS DISARRAY. Over the last 40 years, we've increased spending by the billions while results slide deeper into mediocrity.
 . . .

"What can be done...?" you say. There are a couple of starters: close all education departments on college campuses, eliminate tenure and have a school choice system.

The tragic thing is that the above referenced column was written thirteen years ago, and nothing has changed - not even the vast amounts of money we keep wasting by pouring it down that educational rathole.