3 Student
editorials
April 11, 2014
Stop Altering our Test
VIEWS
SAT changes may be the beginning of a downward spiral by Sasha Safonov managing editor The College Board, reigning as the supreme being of standardized tests since 1926, has lost its foothold. For the first time in history, on September 2012, more people took the ACT than SAT. The trend continued through 2013. The College Board recently rolled out several monumental changes in an effort to make the test more fair for students, to make it more accurate, and to increase popularity of the test. But does the focus on accessibility compromise accuracy? First and foremost, the Scholastic Aptitude Test is a tool used as a predictor for success in college. Numerous studies have shown that the SAT, along with high school GPA, provides the best indication of college success. As such, any changes to the test—no matter how minute—should be taken into careful consideration for the effect they can have on college bound seniors. Some changes are a long time coming. The removal of the heavily dreaded
“arcane vocabulary” portion of the test makes practical sense and won’t be missed any time soon. But for the College Board, every step forward is two steps back. Confounding changes include making the best predictor of the SAT, the essay section, optional (Comparing Alternatives in the Prediction of College Success, Zahner, et. al.). While many institutions may require the essay portion, the end result is that more students will be coerced into taking the SAT at the expense of accuracy—a questionable trade-off. In addition, the removal of the penalty for guessing has the surprising effect of encouraging people to guess. This leaves much of SAT score to chance, especially considering many questions can be narrowed down to two or three answers. Another possible problem is the narrowing of topics addressed in the math portion—or quite frankly “dumbing it down.” To be clear, it is too early to tell the effect that these changes will have as an accurate predictor of college readiness. But the test is arguably easier—something that
could affect the accuracy of the test. The SAT and ACT once existed as two distinct tests which functioned to give the student more choice—to take the test that was a better representation of their abilities. The differences between the SAT and ACT are narrowing at the student’s expense. And the clashing of the tests may take a turn for the worse. “I think it’s sort of a race to the bottom now,” said Shaan Patel, director of SAT programs for Veritas Prep in an interview with U.S. News, indicating that the next change the ACT embarks on might see a drop in standards in order to remain competitive against the SAT. Yes, there is a discrepancy between demographics, but the unfortunate truth is that education in America is unequal. The College Board’s partnership with Khan Academy are huge steps in the right direction. However, changes to the actual tests need to be scrutinized, and availability needs to take backseat to accuracy.
“In my opinion SAT was unnecessarily long and difficult. With these changes SAT will slowly become more like ACT over time.” -Minu Bhunia, 12
“I think that these changes are going to hurt the students who are the first to take these tests. Resources and practice tests will be less available, and colleges are going to have a harder time interpreting the data.” -Jon Wang, 11 Photos by Alistair Tang and Christine Kao
Crimea: Why you should care by Sean Sabeti staff reporter Russia has invaded Ukraine and annexed a peninsula on its eastern side called Crimea. This small peninsula happens to be a strategic point for Russia, as it provides direct access to the Black Sea which eventually leads to the Atlantic Ocean. While the world watches events unfold in Ukraine, new information surfaces every day that seems to complicate our understanding of the present state of affairs. As members of the international community, it is essential for us to understand the broader implications that this historic juncture will have now and in the future. If nations can’t learn to respect each other’s sovereignty, only chaos will ensue. The subsequent build-up of troops near the new border with Ukraine is a clear violation of its sovereignty. Nations should not violate other the borders of other nations. Protests have since reemerged in Kiev playing on many Ukrainians’ fears that Russia will advance further into Ukraine and launch a full invasion. If Russia doesn’t mean to invade, then they wouldn’t have amassed tens of thousands of soldiers and armaments near the new border with Ukraine. Perhaps this is a show of force, but if Russia proceeds further into Ukraine, the diplomatic crisis that would ensue could be far more dire.
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Image fair use from wikicommons.com
A map of Ukraine. Crimea, the area under dispute, is in black.
Throughout history, small scale disputes have often inflated into larger ones, sometimes even global crises. Just because it isn’t happening on our front doorstep, doesn’t mean that we won’t be involved someday. Like an old-fashioned bar fight, conflict could arise that would encapsulate entities all over. In defense of his actions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated that the invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003 shows a double standard by Western powers regarding this issue, and he does bring up a devastating point. The U.S. violated Iraq’s sovereignty by invading under false pretenses, killing
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hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, while only a few people have perished throughout the crisis in Crimea. Though the U.S. set a terrible precedent by invading Iraq, and arguably Afghanistan, two wrongs don’t make a right. To justify the annexation, a highly questionable referendum was held to determine whether the people of Crimea would want to join the Russian Federation. As far as legality of the referendum goes, it wasn’t carried out within the framework of the Ukrainian constitution. The referendum gave a 96 percent in favor result, which is highly questionable since the Tatar minority of Crimea which makes up about 15 percent of the population has boycotted the vote. To add insult to injury, the Crimean government required all Tatars to give up their land for undisclosed purposes, and since then, most have fled Crimea. When we were young, we were taught not to take other’s belongings, or at least to ask nicely before borrowing something. The conflict in Ukraine may seem distant and irrelevant to the our everyday high school lives, but after all, World War II started on another continent as well. If we want to avoid more major conflicts like World War II, we must first start by preventing the minor ones. To do so we must pay attention to and learn from global conflicts, in the hope that one day we will be able to avoid these conflicts from ever happening.
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