THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 165, July 6, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DUMBING DOWN AMERICA'S COLLEGES
By Alan Caruba
ELIMINATING THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TESTS: COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES SLOWLY EVISCERATING THE SAT
REASONING & SUBJECT TESTS -- REMOVING RELIABLE & FAIR MEANS OF EVALUATING COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY
APPLICANTS TO DETERMINE DEGREE OF READINESS FOR STUDY AT THE HIGHER EDUCATIONAL LEVEL -- GIVING COLLEGE &
UNIVERSITY CLASSROOM SEATS TO APPLICANTS WHO QUALIFY PRIMARILY ON THE BASIS OF RACE & OTHER
NON-ACADEMIC FACTORS
FULL STORY:
The process that began in the 1960s to transform America’s elementary, middle, and high schools into places where
students could literally graduate without being able to read their diploma, where the teaching of mathematics was
reduced to mush without rules and where it was more important for students to feel really good about themselves than
having to measure up scholastically with millions in foreign nations, has now reached the campuses of America’s
colleges and universities.
In a nation where it now costs thousands of dollars to fire an incompetent teacher, we have the specter of university
and college presidents eliminating one of the most respected tools for measuring a prospective student’s ability to
qualify for admission. The venerable SAT, the gold standard for measuring readiness for college for nearly 80 years, is
slowly being eviscerated by colleges and universities.
Wake Forest University, Bates, Bowdoin, and a few other small schools have recently decided to make the SAT
optional for students applying for admission. Their argument for getting rid of these tests is that it will fling open the
doors to “diversity” among the student body. Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch made the ludicrous claim that
jettisoning the SAT would help the school “move closer to the goals of greater educational quality and opportunity.”
Such decisions are less about a selection process intended to serve the best interests of both the student and the
school than about marketing intended to put bottoms in classroom seats. It seems the biggest question in college
admissions offices today is whether the parents of little Johnny or Jane can afford to pay tuition, even if it includes
remedial courses. If the kid has a pulse, he’s in!
Disparaging the SATs for helping set high academic standards ignores the fact that more than two million students take
the SAT every year and that more than 88% percent of America’s colleges require it for admission.
Those that don’t require the SAT for admission often use it for course placement and scholarship consideration. The
overwhelming majority of colleges use the SAT because it has acquired a well-deserved reputation for its ability to aid
the evaluation process.
It is essential to keep in mind that the SAT is a measuring device to help determine which students are best suited for a
college-level education. It is rarely, if ever, the sole determining factor; good admissions officers also consider the
student’s high school GPA, admissions essays, honors courses, and other factors. There are several SATs; the
Reasoning Test and the Subject Tests, which measure a student’s knowledge in specific areas of study covering
everything from physics to languages.
The requirement of SAT Subject Tests will be put to a vote of the University of California’s Board of Regents during its
July 15 meeting in an effort to eliminate them as a means of determining whether a student is prepared for specific
coursework at a higher level.
The stated reason for eliminating the subject tests strains credulity, i.e., that not enough students know they have to
take them. So, rather than improving communications with UC applicants, the system’s Academic Senate is
recommending the regents just do away with these tests altogether.
In reality, the vote has everything to do with Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative, which pushed for a
color-blind admissions process, instead of a spurious “diversity” selection system based on race and other
non-academic factors. Voters in 51 of the state’s 58 counties supported the measure. Does the UC Academic Senate
really think it “knows better” than the vast majority of California voters? I think not.
Those who want the UC system to drop subject tests are putting forth the politically correct and totally erroneous claim
that the tests are unfair to minorities, but Van Tran, a California legislator of Vietnamese heritage and UC alumnus points
out that, by eliminating subject tests, “the UC system is proposing a move that could diminish opportunities for tens of
thousands of UC applicants from minority, immigrant, and disadvantaged families.”
To the charge that students from minority families cannot afford to take the tests, there are procedures in place to ensure
that those without the financial means to pay can take the tests for free. A good student is a good student no matter his
family’s financial status or where they live. The SATs are a way of measuring that and opening doors that might
otherwise be closed to good students who may need financial assistance and whose education would ultimately benefit
the nation.
There are suggestions in some academic circles that dropping the SATs will somehow “strengthen” high school curricula
and teaching. This too is an utterly bogus notion. The entire education system across the nation is broken.
The goal of public education has morphed from educating youngsters to simply moving students — good, bad, and
indifferent — through government schools like so much sausage by inflating grades, turning teachers into “facilitators,”
expecting students to educate each other, and discouraging students who really want to learn -- discouraging them by
failing to exercise a measure of discipline in the classroom.
There isn’t an employer in the nation who will not tell you how increasingly difficult it is to find a new hire, straight out of
college, who is prepared to take on real world responsibilities. By removing reliable and fair means of evaluating college
applicants and dumbing down America’s colleges and universities, the only recourse left to many employers will be to hire
foreign graduates.
The best way to prepare for college and the SAT is to work hard in high school and take a well rounded curriculum.
Cheating qualified students who have taken the time and effort to prepare for this by devaluing and eliminating the SAT is
just wrong. Giving their classroom seat to someone who qualifies primarily on the basis of race or other non-academic
factor is just wrong.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education & America's Schools
A Practical Guide to Homeschooling
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2008
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity