Students heading for the University of California schools will face a new battery of tests beginning in March of 2005:
UC regents on Thursday adopted new freshman admissions test requirements that are aligned to national changes on the SAT and ACT tests, which colleges and universities across the nation use in admissions decisions.
Previously, UC-bound students were required to take the ACT or the SAT I test, as well as three additional, subject-specific SAT II tests. But both the ACT and SAT boards are revising their tests nationwide...The new SAT includes an essay portion, and expands and changes the language arts and mathematics portions, while the new ACT includes revised math and language arts sections and an optional essay...
UC's new regulations will require all incoming freshmen in 2006 -- who will enter their sophomore year of high school this fall -- to take the new SAT or ACT, including the essay portion, as well as two subject-specific SAT tests. For the subject tests, students can choose tests in two of six subjects: history/social science, English, mathematics, lab science, a foreign language, or visual and performing arts.
Astonishingly, there isn't one negative quote in the article about how this revised testing, with the additional requirement of the subject tests, is going to discriminate against minorities, or women, or how the university is only going to admit "lower-order thinkers" using these exams, or any other obligatory anti-testing quotes. The writer must have been under a deadline.
Also, the focus on the essay question makes it difficult for the typical anti-testing crowd to complain, because those types of items are more objective. allow for more creative thinking, and usually allow women to perform better. However, I suppose the wrangling over the "discriminatory" standard of Standard Written English will soon begin. What's more, if the cutpoints are set high for the essay portion, schools that have been neglecting writing skills will really have put their students at a disadvantage. In that case, they'll be doing student a valuable favor by starting to "teach to the test," if it includes making sure they learn to write well.
Posted by kswygert at July 22, 2003 11:52 AM