The Foreign Service Journal, June 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2014 59 I f you’re a student, a parent or even a grandparent, most likely you’ve encountered the SAT. For much of its century-long existence, this multiple-choice test that aims to assess readiness for higher education has been one of the keys to college. While a student’s high school grade- point average is still the most important part of the college application, colleges also use SAT results in evaluating appli- cants. Once called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test, it’s now simply the SAT™. For decades a two-part (Reading and Mathematics) test, the SAT incorporated a mandatory Writing section in 2005. Recently, the College Board, the nonprofit corporation that oversees the SAT, announced that the biggest revamp in its history will be implemented in the spring of 2016. The SAT will reflect more of what is actually being learned in America’s schools, and the College Board will make THE REVAMPED SAT A MUCH-NEEDED OVERHAUL OR COSMETIC SURGERY? The SAT is being overhauled. What does it mean? BY FRANCESCA HUEMER KE L LY Francesca Huemer Kelly is a Foreign Service spouse and freelance writer living in Highland Park, Illinois. early 20th century—and which some insist still exists today. In about 1900, professors from a dozen leading U.S. universities formed the College Entrance Examination Board (later the College Board) and developed a standardized entrance examination to level the playing field for college applicants. The early version of the SAT required simple essay-writing, but by 1926 the College Board had adapted psycholo- gist Carl Brigham’s aptitude test for the military into a multiple-choice test for college applicants. For years, controversy has sur- rounded the SAT, with opponents alleging that it is not a good predictor of college success and cannot measure important traits like creativity. The fact that a student can “prep” for the exam has also been a source of contention: rather than measuring material learned, detractors say, the SAT merely measures test-taking skills. By 1959, SAT found itself facing a rival: ACT, a different sort of college entrance examination developed by the nonprofit American College Testing. EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT test preparation accessible to students of all income levels. Behind the Changes “It is time to admit that the SAT and the ACT [American College Testing] have become far too disconnected from the work of our high schools,” College Board President David Coleman has said of the planned changes. While this statement is probably true, Coleman’s inclusion of the ACT college readiness assessment test, the SAT’s biggest competitor, was no accident. Detractors claim that the much-heralded SAT revamp is simply a profit-oriented response to the rapidly rising popularity of ACT. But Coleman stresses that the restructured SAT with its increased accessibility is a game-changer in American higher education, and returns to the original mission and purpose of the SAT: to circumvent the “boarding school to Ivy League” system of college admissions that was prevalent in the