College Board considers alterations to SAT exam

By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Analogies are to the SAT test as derivative problems are to a
calculus exam and as switching lanes are to a driving test. But
these analogies may not be accurate forever.

The College Board, which administrators the SAT I and II tests
and Advanced Placement exams, is considering changing its test in
order to hold onto its biggest client ““ the University of
California.

The College Board has suggested eliminating or seriously
reducing the analogy portion of the test, creating a writing
portion and making the math sections more difficult, the board
announced on March 23.

“It’s an important step,” said Gaston
Caperton, president of the College Board.

Even with these developments, high school students nationwide
should not throw away their SAT study books or stop showing up for
prep courses yet ““ the test won’t change for at least
four years.

College Board trustees last week authorized Caperton and his
staff to explore possible changes to the test. Recommended changes
would go back to the trustees for a vote in June and, if approved,
would go into effect no earlier than 2006.

The College Board’s proposal comes just over a year after
UC President Richard Atkinson stunned the academic world by calling
for the UC to drop the SAT in its admissions criteria.

Atkinson argued that the SAT no longer served the UC’s
needs. The SAT encourages high school students to study word
riddles and enigmatic math problems at the expense of reading
poetry and practicing chemistry, Atkinson said shortly after making
his proposal.

The threat of losing thousands of potential UC students has
almost forced the College Board to explore test changes.

“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.

UC officials tentatively supported the proposal to change the
SAT.

“It appears at this juncture that the College Board has
seen the wisdom of (Atkinson’s) argument,” said UC
spokesman Michael Reese.

Others remain less convinced.

“They’re just trying to put some polish on a
tarnished product,” said Bob Schaeffer, a spokesman for
FairTest, a Cambridge, Mass.-based group that is among the
SAT’s harshest critics.

When Atkinson initially took his stance against the SAT, he went
completely against the grain. At a time when President Bush and
Gov. Gray Davis were advocating more teacher and student
accountability by way of standardized tests, Atkinson called his
university system to cut ties with the most popular college
admissions test, taken by nearly 2 million students every year.

Since Atkinson’s proposal, officials throughout the UC and
the country have debated the test’s benefits and drawbacks.
Supporters say the test provides a way for colleges to identify
which applicants benefited from grade inflation in high school.

Critics attack the SAT as culturally and gender biased. On
average, whites and Asian Americans score higher than Latinos and
African Americans, and there is a direct relationship between
family income and test score. SAT supporters, though, contend that
the reasons for a gap in scores lie in the socio-economic condition
of the test taker and an unfair public school system, not the test
itself.

Males tend to score almost 50 points higher than females on the
SAT, suggesting test score discrepancies are not only based on the
socio-economic conditions of the test taker. But test supporters
point out that female students are less likely than male students
to take AP science and math classes, saying they are not pushed to
do so in the same way.

In many ways, the changes the College Board has suggested
reflect the qualities of a UC-proposed new admissions that aim to
be more closely tied to the state’s high school
curriculum.

In January, a UC faculty committee recommended that the UC
develop a new test on reading, writing and mathematics and more
closely tied to what California students learn in the classroom.
Three weeks ago, a group of UC Regents met in closed session to
discuss the possibility of switching to such a test.

“We want to send the message to teachers, students and
parents that studying courses in high school will pay off because
you will be tested on them in the admissions process,”
Atkinson said at the March 13 meeting.

The proposed test would encompass an enhanced version of the SAT
I math section and a writing portion similar to that of the SAT II
writing test, said Dorothy Perry, chair of the systemwide Board of
Admissions and Relations with Schools, which presented the test
design to the regents during the March meeting.

The proposed test is expected to go before the regents in July.
If approved, it could be in place by 2006.

The possibility of the College Board changing its test will
likely not affect the UC’s own plans, Reese said.

Reports from Daily Bruin wire services.