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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Don't most European models assume a national curriculum?[/quote]

They need to conform to some very broad standards.

And?

(That way, no crazies around influencing what is being said about evolution, vaccination or anticonceptives)[/quote]

The British A-level and French bac exam questions I've seen look very different from SAT questions.   And, in fact, they look like they'd yield answers that would enable a reader to make intelligent decisions about a student's readiness and aptitude for college-level work.

In the absence of a national curriculum, I wonder whether the U.S. could develop similar tests.  Thus far, AP is the main contender but, of course, if we based college admissions on AP results, we'd really be screwing over kids whose schools didn't offer these courses.  And the SAT, while perhaps useful in doing a gross sort among test-takers and as a bit of a reality check on GPAs, is pretty useless in assessing the capabilities of kids at the very high end which, after all, is what many highly selective universities are trying to do.  Which is one of the reasons that they don't do admissions based solely on grades and standardized test scores.

Basically, in the US college admissions officers confront an applicant pool whose preparation, often through no fault of individual students or their families, has been widely variable.  I think we'd have to do a much better job of equalizing secondary school education (and then radically reform the SAT) before we could make any plausible claim that basing college admissions strictly on grades and standardized test scores would be meritocratic.[/quote]

Very good point. Unfortunately the Common Core is not getting the traction it deserves...and that is part of the challenge.[/quote]

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