Reply to Banneker versus School Without Walls

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Banneker versus School Without Walls"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Honestly, grow up.[/b] You've been try to shout down everybody who disagrees with you for ten pages now.

Arguably, the SAT does test content, [b]what should be easy math and reading content for college-bound high school juniors and senior[/b]s.  Many SAT takers need to go back to review algebra and geometry they took two, three even for years earlier to ensure that they can score high.  SAT reading is pitched at around an 8th grade level.

Yet one Banneker booster after another comes here to holler that the test is racist, superfluous, outmoded, ossified and on its way out.  What's the goal?  To let DCPS off the hook in failing to prepare the Banneker students to ace what should be an eminently manageable test for the cream of the DCPS HS crop, at least where AA and Latino students are concerned.  Frankly, BASIS' scores for AA kids put Banneker to shame.[/quote]

The data is clear that:

- The SAT is most effective at predicting parental income.
- The SAT does a worse job than high school grades at predicting student success in college.
- There are clear changes that could be made to the SAT that would reduce the racial and SES gaps by making the test harder, changes that the college board as resisted.  In fact, the trend for the past couple of decades has been to make the test easier in ways that objectively increase the SES and racial gap.

Also, it's absolutely clear that the SAT was developed expressly for the purpose of offering a veneer of science to support 1920s white supremacy.

You seem unwilling to confront any of those clearly demonstrated facts, instead claiming that the SAT is "easy" and "at an 8th grade level" ---  seemingly unaware that the US average SAT score is 1051, and that this national number is artificially high when compared to DMV-area schools because the test if administered for free during school hours, so far more kids take it than in other areas of the country (where only college-bound kids take it, and they pay to take the test).

I get that FOR YOUR KIDS the SAT is easy.  Me too.  I was a national merit scholar, took the test only once and never studied at all.  But [b]competent policymaking is not about making policy based on my individual experience or yours.[/b]  It's about looking at data to understand what's actually going on in the world and making policy accordingly.  Denying obvious issues with the SAT (which are amply supported by data) and taking refuge in anecdotes about your individual experience doesn't help anyone.

[/quote]
This European asserts that "competent policymaking" isn't about sending hundreds of thousands of American HS graduates who are poorly prepared to handle the academics at 4-year BA programs to college annually.  Where I come from, if a student can't handle the 7th-9th grade level type reading comprehension and math tested on the SAT, s/he is not considered BA material by university gatekeepers, full stop.  This is true whatever his or her skin color and parents' income.  Students can get extra prep to meet admissions standards with help from the government, or go on to vocational training.  What they can't do get is carte blanche to head to a 4-year undergrad program in search of remedial education, or the chance to flunk out subsidized by the taxpayer through federal student loans programs. Denying the obvious issues with the failure of a great many applicants to clear a reasonable academic bar for admissions by taking refuge in asserting the right of the poorly prepared to attend 4-year college programs must be about your individual experience and political leanings.  Common sense tells me that the fact that Banneker's lagging SAT scores are sufficient to send dozens of graduates to 4-year programs annually, although they're obviously not prepared to handle the requisite course work, is far more problematic than the less-than-perfect design of the SAT. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics