by LaDonna Hatfield

Created on: November 17, 2008

Congratulations, Tabitha Miley! If you are reading this article, be certain to read the fine article by this young lady written for this topic. The information she gives you is accurate and compelling, but even more, she brings to the forefront the fact that college admission tests are biased and fail to predict a high school junior or senior's future success in college or in life! I have written about the evils inherent in high-stakes testing before. Perhaps whoever President-elect Obama chooses for Secretary of Education needs to be invited to Helium to take a gander at the information on Helium. That person will become acquainted with teachers, students, parents, average Joes (plumbers or not) who have strong views about education in the United States and what is right and what is wrong about it.

Tabitha Miley scored a 24 on her ACT, ladies and gentlemen, and she eloquently expresses what she and her classmates feel about ACT and SAT scores. In addition, she explains that not only do these tests not measure intelligence, they don't even measure how successful a student will be in college! That's correct! The ACT and SAT are not intelligence tests at all, and they are not an accurate measure of anyone's intelligence. Their purpose is to determine how prepared a student is for the college curriculum. Which college? None specified. Which curriculum-English, Science, Forensics, Animal Husbandry? Again, none specified. So what do they measure? Well, now, that's the question, isn't it?

"ACT, Inc. says that the ACT assessment measures high school students' general educational development and their capability to complete college-level work with the multiple-choice tests covering four skill areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science. The optional Writing Test measures skill in planning and writing a short essay.[6]Specifically, ACT states that its scores provide an indicator of "college readiness", and that scores in each of the subtests correspond to skills in entry-level college courses in English, algebra, social science, humanities, and biology.[7]" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(examination) However, it should be noted that the College Readiness Score in English is listed as 18, the score for Math is 22, the score for Reading is 21, and the score for Science is 24. The average of those scores is only 21.25, but high school teachers across the United States are pushing for students to score much higher than that. After all, much higher scores are required

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>