For a fair and comprehensive overview of the SAT admissions exam, take a look at Smithsonian Magazine's recent article on the 100-year history, the current state of research, and the cyclical policy debates around the exam.
We know also that scores on standardized tests like the SAT correlate with family wealth. We know that wealthier students take and retake the PSAT and the SAT with the help of prep courses and private tutors to maximize scores.
We also know that some colleges still require SAT scores in the hope that admissions decisions can more objective in surfacing talented students from underrepresented communities. Few colleges required the SAT for admissions during COVID. Multiple colleges are weighing whether to reinstate testing requirements, given the challenges of evaluating AI enhanced application essays and grade inflation in high schools.
The Educational Testing Service makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year administering these testing operations. It would be fair to argue that have an interest in sustaining their roles as gatekeepers to college admissions. At the same time, the shrinking number of college-aged students in the US population also means that colleges will have to be open to a broader applicant pool than they once were if they are to sustain enrollment.
This would be a solid piece to assign in classes or to share with colleagues who are deliberating about admissions policies at the school and campus level.
The sample questions included in the article provide intriguing context for the discourse around what these tests do and do not measure.
