"New SAT" Presents Troubling Scenario |
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| Written by Charles Lewis | |||
| Tuesday, 02 March 2004 16:00 | |||
Summary: Full text:
In an earlier article ("The 'New' SAT and the Movement toward a National Curriculum"), this writer reported some pending radical changes to the ubiquitous SAT exam, changes being engineered by the College Board's president, ex-politico Gaston Caperton.
The pamphlet stipulates that photocopies of essays will be provided to all universities to which a given testee submits his SAT results in the application process. This represents the first time on such a universal exam that test takers will be required to report personal opinions on sensitive subjects - opinions that they may understandably wish to keep private or divulge only to those to whom they choose to divulge them. Possibilities for abuse are multiple. First, since the principal value on which an essay is to be graded is persuasiveneess, a grader who disagrees with the position of a writer can justify the awarding of a low grade on the basis of not being persuaded. The prevailing one-sided political orientation of American university staffs offers countless examples of students censured or graded down for expressing politically incorrect views. The new SAT will provide a means (even independent of SAT graders' biases) for schools to eliminate such thinkers beforehand. But a more chilling concern focuses on the privacy issue. The College Board (a politician-run organization) will now possess a national document bank detailing political views of nearly every US college applicant - views obtained under coercion, since no SAT generally means no college. This audacious departure from both tradition and propriety appears to be step three in a process of politicization of our youth. It follows on the heels of:
The new SAT will give operatives the opportunity to weed out those students able to filter through such obstacles unscathed. In Castro's Cuba, such renegades would be sent to re-education camps or prison. In the wrong hands here, who knows? It would appear that Big Brother keenly wants to know "what's up" in the minds of our freer thinking youth. Maybe the College Board can be pressured to eschew mandatory issues-related essays. If not, a nationwide boycott of the new SAT is a virtual imperative. Charles Lewis Former Director of Studies World Public Charter School Washington, DC "New SAT" Presents Troubling Scenario by Charles Lewis Charles Lewis is a former mathematics department chairman and charter school head who has authored several textbooks in the areas of mathematics and phonics.       
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