Earlier this year at a gathering with members of the press, the presidents of a handful of top research universities were discussing their commitment to diversity. As if with one voice they said standardized test scores play only a small part in their admissions process. Their institutions, they pronounced, are virtually disinterested in SAT and ACT scores.
The high-powered buzz of insistence ended abruptly, however when the presidents were asked whether their institutions issue press releases whenever their average freshman SAT scores go up.
The embarrassed silence illustrated the central paradox surrounding standardized test scores -- that even though higher education professionals understand their limitations, especially as an aggregate measure of groups of students, they also know that the general public is impressed by high test scores and considers them of paramount importance.
Last week, the College Board released its annual report on student performance on the SAT. As the public and higher education institutions now clamor to interpret and market the findings, it is useful to examine what testing experts have to say about what these scores really mean and the context in which they should be used.
The Power of Numbers
"America believes three is bigger than two. They believe these numbers," is the way Joan Snowden, a former director of a policy center at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), describes the public's understanding of test scores.
Examples abound of the public's reliance on SAT and ACT scores as a measure of academic achievement. Colleges consistently publish average freshman test scores, which high school students then use to determine where they should apply. Real estate agents and parents use the high school-by-high school listings of scores, published by local newspapers, as guides to the "best" schools and neighborhoods. And the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), which governs intercollegiate sports competition, uses SAT and ACT scores as a way to decide who can play: A student who receives a score of 17 on the ACT, for example, has to sit out a year before playing intercollegiate sports.
