Originally posted by justme
1 - Well, given that class rank and courseloads are better predictors of success, why not just simply use them and eliminate the SAT?
2 - Still, I think the overall harm it does to large groups like women and minorities (groups that don't really need more obstacles getting into college) more than offsets the benefits the small group of smart slackers.
1 - Granted that those factors are better predictors, the reason for not dropping the SATs, put forward by OH and me above, is that they are probably also
more biased even than the SATs against some disadvantaged groups, at least in many schools and areas.
2 - So, the conclusion (which I admit I cannot demonstrate but which I feel reasonably confident is correct) is that the SATs reduce the obstacles such groups face by giving them a way of "going around" the (local) system(s) for evaluating students. In the place and time I went to high school (medium sized Southern town/city in the mid-1960s), I think that a black student would have had very close to
zero chance of being ranked at or close to the top of the graduating class and would have had to fight hard just to be allowed into the college prepratory classes, much less to take a heavy course load. The SATs were also no doubt biased against him, but
less biased than the situation he/she faced overall. (Btw, you can make a fair case that a small group of "smart slackers" in high school end up later contributing far more than their numbers would suggest.)
-Ww
PS - I thought that this thread was about guessing, not disclosing, scores!