Standardized testing is the only easy way to evaluate a student against every other student in America, specifically regarding the ACT and the SAT. Rather than going the “easy” route, colleges should work on a new way to evaluate students for scholarships, other than giving them money because of how they performed on a test over the course of a couple of hours. Some wonder if a student from south-side Chicago, that has worked alone his entire life to get out of his neighborhood, should receive the same amount of scholarship money as a student from a suburban neighborhood, whose affluent parents paid thousands of dollars for prep classes, just because they have the same score on one test. This just proves the flaw in the system of standardized
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These entrance exams became popular amongst other colleges, but still were restricted only to elite colleges such as Columbia, Cornell, Vassar, Barnard, and New York University. College board tests were content based and gave students specific material to study several months in advance; for example, the student could learn that this year’s Greek Test will cover three books of Homer’s Iliad, and have the time before the test to study. Only 4% of high school graduates were attending college at this time. The first Scholastic Aptitude Test (or “SAT”) was administered in 1926 and was the first standardized test to evaluate a student’s aptitude for learning, and was also the first to test for more than one subject. Then, in 1934, Harvard began requiring every prospective scholarship applicant to take the SAT; and therefore began awarding scholarships to those who scored the highest. At this time, the SAT was appealing to many college officials because the aptitude test benefited certain origins, which made sense because intelligence and ethic origin were thought to be directly correlated. This aptitude test was not altered until 1959, when the American College Testing (ACT) Program was designed for public universities and for logical placement of students in certain courses. Both tests were slightly modified from year to year but the problem with certain ethnicities was not addressed until 2001 when both tests were modified to fit all races and also began to set the bottom line for college admissions. Since this change, the tests have been slightly modified to fit changes from year to year.
These entrance exams became popular amongst other colleges, but still were restricted only to elite colleges such as Columbia, Cornell, Vassar, Barnard, and New York University. College board tests were content based and gave students specific material to study several months in advance; for example, the student could learn that this year’s Greek Test will cover three books of Homer’s Iliad, and have the time before the test to study. Only 4% of high school graduates were attending college at this time. The first Scholastic Aptitude Test (or “SAT”) was administered in 1926 and was the first standardized test to evaluate a student’s aptitude for learning, and was also the first to test for more than one subject. Then, in 1934, Harvard began requiring every prospective scholarship applicant to take the SAT; and therefore began awarding scholarships to those who scored the highest. At this time, the SAT was appealing to many college officials because the aptitude test benefited certain origins, which made sense because intelligence and ethic origin were thought to be directly correlated. This aptitude test was not altered until 1959, when the American College Testing (ACT) Program was designed for public universities and for logical placement of students in certain courses. Both tests were slightly modified from year to year but the problem with certain ethnicities was not addressed until 2001 when both tests were modified to fit all races and also began to set the bottom line for college admissions. Since this change, the tests have been slightly modified to fit changes from year to year.