California's SAT decision sparks controversy

Students applying to one of the University of California's eight colleges may no longer be required to spend hours preparing for the dreaded SATs. Instead, these students may have the option of whether or not to submit their SAT scores.

CRISTINA SOSA

Last week, Richard C. Atkinson, president of the University of California, released a report stating his opinion that the SATs should no longer be required for admission into the university system. While other colleges and universities—Reed, Dickinson, and Mt. Holyoke among them—have already eliminated the mandatory submission of SATs for admission, the University of California is by far the largest educational institution, and the only state school, to take this step.

According to a statement released by Atkinson, high schools and even middle schools spend far too much time preparing their students to take standardized tests.

"I visited an upscale private school and observed a class of 12-year-old students studying verbal analogies in anticipation of the SAT," Atkinson wrote in the report that he delivered Sun., Feb. 18 at a meeting of the American Council on Education. "I concluded what many others have concluded—that America's overemphasis on the SAT is compromising our educational system."

Undue emphasis on test preparation is not the only criticism of the SATs voiced by those who disapprove of the test. Many studies have shown that women and minorities, especially African Americans and Hispanics, consistently score lower on the SATs than their white, male peers.

Indeed, in 1997, the University of California's Latino eligibility task force recommended that the university stop requiring the submission of SAT scores from applicants, as this greatly decreased the number of Latino students who were admitted into the University of California.

A Sept. 24, 1997 issue of the Berkeley campus newspaper, the Berkeleyan, reported that "the task force report concludes that failure to make significant changes [dropping the SAT requirement among them] will systematically reduce the Latino student population at UC at the same time that the state's Latino population surges dramatically."

The issue of women's and minorities' lower scores on the SATs is especially salient at the University of California, which stopped using affirmative action to admit students in 1998. This move, according to a Washington Post article from Apr. 1, 1998, meant that the "admissions of African American, Chicano, Latino and American Indian students for [the following] fall's freshman class...plunged by more than half."

Nevertheless, an article written by Marcia Yablon and published in the Oct. 30, 2000 issue of the New Republic highlights another reason why colleges may choose to eliminate the mandatory submission of SAT scores. According to the article, when colleges stop requiring students to submit SAT scores, only those with the highest scores will choose to report their results, and correspondingly, the average SAT score for the school will rise.

The article in the New Republic stresses the importance of a school's average SAT scores in encouraging applications to the schools, especially as U.S. News & World Report, which releases an annual college ranking, relies heavily on the average SAT score of a school to determine its rank.

And the article provides evidence that the elimination of mandatory SAT score submission does help to raise the average SAT score of a college. "Take Dick-inson College," Yablon writes. "Since making [the SAT optional] the school has seen a 60-point increase in its average SAT score."

Nevertheless, the article does make clear that it is mostly small colleges that are seeking to enhance their rankings by no longer requiring the submission of SAT scores.

It does not seem likely that Yale, with its perennial spot at the top of U.S. News & World Report's ranking and its exceptionally high median math and verbal SAT scores, would feel the need to increase its average by making submission of the score optional.

What the University of California's elimination of the SAT requirement would mean for Yale also remains uncertain. While Richard Shaw, dean of admissions for Yale College, could not be reached for comment, Margrit Dahl, director of undergraduate admissions, told the Yale Daily News that it does not appear likely that Yale will stop requiring the submission of SAT scores anytime soon.

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