« Brrrr | Main | Carnivalesque 45 - a blog carnival of Ancient and Medieval findings »
November 23, 2008
Another Salvo in the SAT Wars
As highly selective colleges drop their SAT requirements for graduation, there's this article to consider from someone who had a lot of information at his disposal - Peter Salins, who was Provost of the State University of New York System from 1997 to 2006 on Does the SAT Predict College Success?
Salins has one criterion for success - graduation in 6 years. He had a big system with some variety in the schools to look at. His answer? Yes. Go read and see.
You'd think this is a question we could have answered to general satisfaction long ago, given the energy that's been poured into it. Perhaps that in itself is a lesson about the social sciences?
via Joanne Jacobs.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at November 23, 2008 1:59 PM
Comments
I have a very simple definition of "success" - it's "achievement of goals". Perhaps the goals of the people who want to drop the SAT don't include moving students through the program to graduation. One might speculate as to what those goals might be. "Diversity" for instance - we hear about that a lot and it implies nothing about academic success or graduation.
I wrote on my blog back in January 2006 about a semiliterate note from a student for the teacher of my micro class. I challenge anyone to tell me how and why that student got admitted to a university. Nothing against her - she needed something that she never got in school, apparently, but she wasn't going to get it in a microbiology class at University of Memphis. One wonders how the school justifies admitting people like this and taking their money when they clearly will not be graduating.
Posted by: Laura(southernxyl) at November 23, 2008 3:36 PM