CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“UC
SHOULD KEEP ACT, SAT; NOT BE INTIMIDATED”
For
months, the University of California has been beset by the threat of a lawsuit
from parents of minority students and others supposedly looking out for their
interests, who insist the UC system’s use of national standardized tests in its
admission process is discriminatory.
Really?
The claim propounded by lawyers for the Compton Unified School District,
several students and five nonprofits is that the SAT and ACT exams taken by
millions of high schoolers across the nation are not fair to minorities and
children of the poor.
They
assert that test performances closely correlate with family incomes, parent
education levels and race. That’s undoubtedly correct: Higher income families
often seek classes and other educational opportunities for their children
outside school programs and frequently arrange prep courses for their kids
before they take the exams.
Yes,
the College Board, which runs the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the
American College Testing (ACT) program have changed their exams, making them
less likely to favor the economically privileged and white or Asian-American
kids.
But
nothing prevents mostly-minority school districts like
Compton
from designing test preparation courses of their own, specially targeted to
overcome whatever disadvantages they believe their students might have. These
classes could be offered free to everyone expected to take either test within
two years of the class’s opening date. So far, only a few such publicly-funded
classes exist, but where they do, student performances improved.
Reality
is that public schools cannot force parents to take a greater than normal
interest in their kids’ education. Numerous studies show that the more educated
parents are, the more they participate in parent-teacher activities at their
children’s schools and the more assiduous they are about making sure their
children do homework and attend school reliably.
For
sure, kids who form bad study and attendance habits from an early age almost
always fare worse than others on the SAT and ACT.
And
what about the claim that use of the tests as a factor in UC admissions amounts
to racial and economic discrimination? It’s no more discriminatory than the
university system’s concurrent use of grade point averages, essays and class
rankings, where parental education and financial standing also usually
correlate with better performance.
None
of this will satisfy the anti-test advocates. Their unspoken aim: They would
essentially like to see UC dumbed down so that more people can enjoy the
prestige and the privileged assumptions that go with a diploma from one of
America’s preeminent public universities.
One
official of the Oakland-based Equal Justice Society told a reporter that “The
SAT has built-in biases that ultimately derail the college aspirations of
thousands of hardworking students of color who would thrive in college and make
important contributions to the UC community and beyond. The test serves no
purpose other than to act as a barrier to higher education for historically
disadvantaged students.”
If
there are some discriminatory aspects, they may include the fact that language
dialects some students use at home do not jibe well with word usage on the
test. This could be overcome by test-prep courses if they were widely offered
by public schools in disadvantaged areas. That could be one very constructive
use of the extra money the state has sent to schools with large numbers of poor
kids under programs begun by ex-Gov. Jerry Brown six years ago. But few
districts have done this.
And
there is ample evidence that the SAT and ACT usually serve their stated
purpose: test results usually predict college performance by the test takers.
At
the same time, it does not seem to matter to opponents of standardized exams
what the testing companies do to make their exams less sensitive to privilege
and parental interest. Both firms have redesigned test questions with this
factor in mind, but could not stem the complaints.
The
bottom line: In a climate where several UC chancellors and other top officials
say they’re open to abandoning the tests, a UC committee is to report in early
spring on what the elite system should do. Whatever it does, UC must take care
to avoid anything that might undermine its high standing, which draws top
faculty and students from around the world.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough:
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net