The SAT is a deeply imperfect test. It claims to test neither IQ nor material taught in school, rendering results highly correlative with income as wealthier students have access to tutors teaching them the oddly sophomoric yet esoteric skills tested on the exam. The best thing to be said about the exam is that it at least attempts to create an objective measure of merit.
The SAT subject tests are a different story. Whereas a college math department learns little from a student’s math ability based on the math section of the general SAT, which only tests Algebra I, middle school geometry, and a sliver of Algebra II, the Level 2 subject test also evaluates precalculus. Furthermore, the College Board has tests for a range of subjects not covered at all by the original SAT, such as physics, world history, and foreign languages.
Or, shall I say, the College Board had these tests. Blaming the coronavirus, the College Board has discontinued both the SAT subject tests and the essay writing section of the SAT, claiming the pandemic “accelerated a process already underway at the College Board to simplify our work and reduce demands on students.” (The cancellation of the writing section is far less notable, as, unlike the subject tests, most admission boards have been ignoring the writing section score for a decade now.)
And with this, the College Board has escalated the college admissions process’s war on meritocracy, giving entirely subjective application features such as tutor-written personal statements and resumes littered with bogus stints at startups and charities even more weight. And nobody has more to lose than the least privileged students.
In high schools, especially elite ones, across the nation, grade inflation is rampant. Wealthy students hire not just test preparation tutors but external college counselors, some starting their freshman or sophomore years, to fine-tune their personal statements and ensure they have enough gigs on their resumes to prove they’re the next Sheryl Sandberg. The only objective measure of merit the least privileged students now have are standardized tests and the College Board’s Advanced Placement tests. But both have been neutered.
Schools in disproportionately high-poverty and rural areas cannot afford to offer AP courses and testing, putting poor students at the disadvantage not just of proving objective merit in a variety of subjects ranging from art history and U.S. government and politics to microeconomics and computer science, but also by not obtaining passing test scores that often count as college credits, rendering qualified students’ degree programs less costly.
With the removal of the subject tests, underprivileged students in schools with no AP access now have zero mainstream tests to prove objective merit in a single subject.
Let’s say a low-income student wishes to become a doctor. He does fine on the reading section and quite well on the math section of the main SAT, but because he went to a poorer school with no grade inflation, he got a B+ in physics and an A- in chemistry and biology. Because he has to work to help out the family, his resume includes a single club and four years of a minimum wage job. Compare that to the wealthy student with the same SAT score, but a resume, personal statement, and transcript all bought and rigged by the elite college admissions cartel. Most tellingly, that resume includes every social justice bait such as “fellowships” at climate change organizations and time as the “CEO” of a racial justice startup.
Of course, the wealthy child will get the slot. Sounds super woke, right?
