SACRAMENTO, CA -- It is ironic that despite the current rhetoric in favor of improving the rigor of K-12 education, there has also been a drumbeat to de-emphasize or eliminate the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). The UC Regents voted to admit pools of high school students on grades alone. The U.S. Department of Education issued a draft guideline saying that colleges should rethink their use of the SAT if it results in a disparate impact on minority admissions; and PBS’s Frontline aired a segment questioning the validity and usefulness of the exam. The empirical evidence, however, clearly shows that the SAT is an effective tool in predicting the success of students in college.

For example, the College Board, which oversees the SAT, gathered data on college grades in individual courses from 45 institutions of higher learning. According to the Board’s 1997 study of this data, the SAT predicted grades in these individual college courses better than high-school grades alone. Further, the study found, "As with earlier validity studies, the combination of SAT scores and high school record yields the best set of predictors."

That is why most colleges and universities use a combination of test scores and GPAs in their admissions process. The SAT is an especially good predictor of the college grades of ethnic-group members.

Another College Board study examined 46,379 students at 55 colleges and universities across the country and found that, "for most ethnic groups the SAT alone is a better predictor of course grades than are high school grades alone." The study also found that the SAT actually benefits most minorities: "For [blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians], . . . the SAT tends to predict a slightly higher GPA than the students actually earn."

It is therefore highly unlikely that the SAT unfairly harms the admission hopes of minority students. In addition to the College Board, researchers from other organizations have reported similar findings.

A recent U.S. Department of Education study found that the correlation between scores on tests such as the SAT and bachelor’s degree attainment was higher than the correlation between students’ high-school class rank/GPA and bachelor’s degree completion.

A University of California (UC) study found that if SAT scores were eliminated, in order to conform to its mandate to admit only the top 12.5 percent of California high-school graduates, the UC system would have to raise the standard GPA for admissions from 3.3 to 3.65. Under such a scenario, the eligibility rate of black students would fall by 18 percent.

The bottom line, says the College Board, is that: "Students admitted to colleges or universities where the curriculum is beyond their level of academic preparation are unlikely to be academically successful, and placing students in such a situation does them a disservice. . . . The SAT, in conjunction with high school grades, is the best means available to identify students who are likely to be academically successful."

Therefore, those who claim to help minorities by eliminating the SAT will end up hurting them instead. But after years of failed liberal policies on race and education, is that any surprise?

--Lance T. Izumi