Finished Draft of Essay #2: Rogerian Argument on Standardized Testing

Allie Cuccoli

ENGL 102-039

Rogerian Argument Essay

20 March 2013

Standardized Test: The Useless Tool

Junior and senior year are the most stressful years of high school students’ careers.  Not only are students juggling college tours, sport activities, extra curricular all while maintain a collegiate-acceptable grade point average, students must also cope with the stress of taking numerous standardized tests, specifically the SAT and the ACT. The majority of American students have to take both the SAT and the ACT in in order to complete their college applications; with out those scores, many colleges will not accept applications. Admission councilors place a heavy emphasis on SATs and ACTs because they believe the tests will accurately predict how well a student will succeed in their college careers.  Recently, the debates regarding whether or not admission councilors should heavily depend on the tests to predict a student’s success at college have become more prevalent in today’s academic society due to the increasing evidence that standardized testing inaccurately portrays a student’s academic ability. 

Some people believe that standardized tests are useful when determining a student's intellectual and academic level.  Supporters of standardized testing advocate that colleges and schools should use these tests to evaluate their students.  Thus, these tests should be taken into great consideration when admission councilors are reviewing college applications.  According to Richard Phelps, Ph.D., standardized tests are reliable and good measures of student achievement; standardized tests avoid teacher bias as well as bias and subjectivity when the tests are graded (“Estimating the Costs”).  Therefore, it is understandable as to why standardized testing is still seen to be a great indicator of a student’s future academic success.

On the other hand, standardized tests are beginning to loose the credibility of being accurate predictors of achievement in college and in the future. The SAT and ACT misrepresent the intellectual and academic capabilities of women as to men.  According to Phyllis Rosser, there is a considerable amount of evidence from studies documenting how women receive higher grade averages than men in every course they take in high school and college; however, women’s scores on the SAT have been 50 to 60 points lower than men’s scores since 1967 (“Standardized Testing”).  The SAT is supposed to predict how well all students will succeed in a university, regardless of a student’s gender. Forms of standardized testing are supposed to give college admission councilors a relatively accurate prediction of the grades an applicant would receive in a college course. Rosser continues in her article saying the Education Testing service conducted a study in 1991 that showed how the Sat “under predicts women’s college math grades at every level” (Standardized Testing”).  Due to the fact that the test greatly misrepresents success of students based on gender, admission councilors are receiving an inaccurate prediction of an applicant’s possible grades he or she would receive at college.  In addition to the misrepresentation of gender, standardized tests falsely predict the success of different ethnicities.  According to Rosser, students of varying ethnicities have lower test scores than Caucasians as a result or poor quality preparation and language barriers (“Standardized Testing”).  The SAT and ACT are test a student’s understanding of the English language.  If a foreign or ethnic student does not know English extensively as would a native speaker, that student is already at a severe disadvantage, and is more likely to receive a poor score as a result.  However, that student could be equally as intelligent and successful as a native speaker, yet admission councilors will only see a low score, indicating that the student will supposedly do poorly in college.

On the other hand, academic transcripts serve as a better too to evaluate a student’s academic capabilities and to get an idea as to how well a student will do in their college career. 

According the essay, “The Rise and Demise of the SAT:  The University of California Generates Change for College Admissions,” the University of California admissions office realized that an applicant’s high school curriculum and resulting grades are the best indicators of the student’s success in college.  For example, if a student excelled in A.P. courses and honors courses, then the student will most likely have great success at college because he or she is well prepared, mentally and academically; the student will know what work load to expect from a college-level course, and they have an adequate, or superior amount of knowledge and intelligence that will enable them to thrive in his or her academics.  Therefore, secondary education teachers should focus more attention on providing their students with the knowledge of the subjects so that they will be able to use it in their college education experience.  According to Diana Payne, standardized tests “may measure the academic strengths and weaknesses to some degree, but they won't serve as a remedy to all the instructional time lost preparing students just for those tests, nothing else” (“Too Much Emphasis”).  Due to the fact that academic transcripts are becoming the more accurate tool in calculating a student’s success, it is essential that educators spend quality time ensuring their students are achieving academic success in their course in high school, rather than wasting time preparing for an inaccurate test.

            Many groups of people in the academic world would benefit if SATs and ACTs are no longer required on college applications.  First, the students themselves will avail because they would not be assessed on how good they are at test taking; instead they would be evaluated solely on their knowledge of subjects as well as their extra-curricular acrivites that enhance their individuality.  Also, they would not feel as stressed or pressured during the college application process knowing that their character is not being assessed by an inaccurate, complicated test. Also, they will not feel the pressure from parents and schools to receive high scores on the tests.

Colleges would also receive more applicants, because the applicants feel more confident in their chances of getting into a school due to their academic knowledge, not due to basic test taking skills. Lastly, as a result of admission officers relying solely at an applicant’s academic achievement in high school and their extra-curricular activities, councilors will fill their school with worthy students who are willing and able to handle the college’s academic level and course load, rather than filling the school with students who are merely very skillful in the art of test taking. 

            However, it is unlikely that the SAT and ACT and other forms of standardized testing will be completely disregarded during the college application process.  Therefore it would be more likely and ideal that all college admission councilors give applicants the option to include or exclude all of their standardized test scores; if the scores are provided, they should be looked at as to only support the grades on the high school transcripts and the other aspects of the application that make a student stand out among the rest of the applicants. Schools are beginning to place a higher emphasis on aspects that make students standout as exemplary individuals rather than their not so unique skills of test taking. In fact, more than 800 colleges and universities no longer require the SAT and more applicants are being asked to write personalized essays (“More Schools”).  Many schools are test optional, meaning submitting standardized test scores is not required; however if an applicant wishes to do so, they can.  There are many examples of schools who are test optional such as the University of California; if an applicant does submit a score, it is only used to back-up the high school transcript (Berger).  If students believe that they would benefit from taking a standardized test and then submitting their test scores, then they should be allowed to have that option, as well as the option to decide against doing so.

Works Cited

Berger, Susan J. "The rise and demise of the SAT: the University of California Generates  Change for

            Admissions." American Educational History Journal 39.1-2 (2012): 165+. Academic OneFile. 

            Web. 6 Mar. 2013.

"More schools Add Essays by Applicants, Fewer Require Standardized SAT test." Women in    

            Higher Education Feb. 2013: 5. Educators Reference Complete. Web. 7 Mar. 2013.

Payne, Diana. "Schools Are Putting Too Much Emphasis on Standardized Tests." Christian        

           Science Monitor 11 May 1999: 14. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.

Phelps, Richard, Ph.D. "Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Educational Testing Programs."      

           Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Educational Testing Programs. Education  Consumers

           Foundation, Feb. 2002. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.

Rosser, Phyllis. "Standardized Testing." The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's

History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1998. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Mar. 2013.