Re: Fw: SAT

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

George,

That was the crux of the fight between Jim and George.  Jim argued that the 
increase in prediction doesn't justify the cost or anything else: doesn't 
help students, doesn't help collelges and has negative impacts on minority 
and low income kids.

Jerry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George K Cunningham" <gkc@louisville.edu>
To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] Fw: SAT


Historically, the SAT was a slightly better predictor of first year in 
college GPA than High School GPA.  In the latest research they appear to be 
equal predictors, but the two combined is a much better predictor than 
either by themselves.

George K. Cunningham
Professor, Ret.

> > > "GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net> 7/15/2008 1:56 PM >>>
This letter appears in today's Washington Post.  Monty, Bob and some other 
ARNers will recognize this as the same argument that engendered a 
long-running, acrimonious dispute between George Hanford, then President of 
the College Board, and SAT critic, Jim Crouse (The Case Against the SAT, 
1988, with Dale Trusheim).  It will be amusing to see what, if anything, the 
Board has to say this time around.

Jerry

----- Original Message ----- 
From: GERALD BRACEY
To: letters@washpost.com
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:04 AM
Subject: SAT


Laurence Bunin of the College Board inadvertently gives the game away in his 
letter defending the SAT.  He wrote "Recent data compiled by the College 
Board show that the SAT...is almost precisely as predictive of college 
success as are four full years of high school."  In other words, the SAT is 
redundant with grades and useless.  As long as you've got the high school 
record, you don't need the SAT.

Carl Campbell Brigham, the principal developer of the SAT, saw it a "merely 
as a supplementary record" and the question has always been, "When the SAT 
is added to the high school record, does it increase the accuracy of 
predictions about college success."  It does not.

Gerald W. Bracey
1797 Duffield Lane
Alexandria, VA 22307
703-317-1716

The writer is a former Director of Research, Evaluation, and Testing for the 
Virginia Department of Education and author of Put to the Test: An 
Educator's and Consumer's Guide to Standardized Testing.