Distinguish standards from standardization

As a final measure for admission into a university or college, the SAT I can easily be overused and even abused. In our re-evaluation of the test, however, we must make sure to acknowledge the reasons such overuse occurs.

At Vanderbilt, we have the luxury of not using SAT scores as an eliminator. I must emphasize that that is a luxury, one not always afforded to state universities and university systems. As a smaller, private institution, we are able to evaluate students in a fuller, more comprehensive context. We consider the grades they earned in core courses, the trend of their overall academic record, and their civic and community involvements. We do not determine a minimum SAT score, because we have the time and the resources to evaluate our applicants from a variety of perspectives.

I am in favor of standards that determine admission to institutions of higher education, but I fear that standards are too easily confused in some minds with standardization. Standardization tends to reduce the educational process to its least common denominator and, in so doing, to lower our expectations of education. It does not allow students to exercise creativity or to demonstrate proficiency in a particular discipline. Standards, on the other hand, accommodate changes to an individuals education. They are achieved along the way to an education, but are never its ultimate goal.

We must acknowledge that, unfortunately, some students are at a disadvantage when taking the SAT, usually those whose backgrounds have not prepared them for taking the test. High scores on the SAT indicate that one is good at taking the SAT. They do not indicate that one thinks creatively or that one has an expansive and sympathetic imagination. They do not signify motivation, passion, or drive, nor do they indicate why the student wants to be or should be in college in the first place. The danger in using these results as an easy eliminator is that we will deprive ourselves of students who possess those qualities, but who are not necessarily the best test-takers.

College Board President Gaston Caperton has argued that the educational inequities that exist among our school systems must be remedied before the SAT is eliminated or before standardized admissions testing is re-evaluated, but what happens to the students that the SAT eliminates in the meantime? Will they have the opportunity to be reevaluated? Why should they be sacrificed-why should we sacrifice our experience of them -for the sake of a test?

E. GORDON GEE is chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

Copyright American Council on Education Spring 2001
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