Authored by Jennifer Kabbany via The College Fix,
The recent decision by the Scholastic Aptitude Test to add a so-called adversity score to test takers’ results for college admissions’ officials to weigh has been almost universally panned.
Few think it’s a good idea to give students an “overall disadvantage level” ranking.
First, conservative scholar Heather Mac Donald laid out several big problems with the new index, noting it’s basically affirmative action and reinforces the soft bigotry of low expectations.
The College Fix’s senior reporter Christian Schneider also weighed in, calling it “just another invitation for fraud.”
“Clearly, lying about one’s racial identity is wrong – but in a country where racial makeup is growing more complex and college admittance is as competitive as ever, students can hardly be blamed for trying to give themselves a leg up,” he opined.
“Colleges are basically begging to be duped – this is akin to publishing your HBO NOW login credentials online and politely asking people not to use your password to watch ‘Game of Thrones.’”
Over at The Daily Signal, Kenny Xu, a math major at Davidson College, pointed out that “the SAT’s new ‘adversity score’ isn’t just unfair. It’s self-destructive.” Xu wrote:
Only a few of the 15 factors used to determine a student’s adversity score have been revealed. But it’s unlikely that any of them will include irregular hardships, such as “My father died when I was little” or “I was bullied in middle school.”
The College Board’s overreaching attempt to determine what constitutes “adversity” for millions upon millions of high school students in America will inevitably capture only certain visible, easily researchable fractions of a student’s experience—a small portion of who they really are.
After all, the aspects that usually affect students’ lives the most are not easily researchable and are not stored in the public databases the College Board plans to mine. The sweeping, collective generalizations this adversity score will make about a person will hinder a student’s ability to craft his own story and advocate for himself.
The Wall Street Journal also came out against the plan. Its editorial board argued that the score “looks like a way to undermine one of the last objective measures of academic merit.”
Also weighing in, deputy editor of The Journal’s editorial page Daniel Henninger linked the new adversity index to the recent college admissions scandal to paint a grim picture:
The admissions scandal and the uproar over the new index literally have nothing to do with each other but in fact are about the same question: Are colleges, in pursuit of poor, mostly black students, putting a thumb on the admissions scales in a way that dilutes if not eviscerates the idea of achievement based on individual merit? The grim reality of what no doubt were liberal, socially aware parents resorting to bribes says, yes, higher education has a credibility problem. …
Accurately identifying and rescuing diamonds in the rough isn’t the worst way to level life’s playing field. But higher ed’s hyperactive race-consciousness has damaged the public’s faith in the admissions process. And will Asian students get shafted no matter what because they live on the wrong end of the bell curve?
Even a writer for Slate isn’t a fan:
“Though these metrics appear to be a well-intentioned effort to guide schools toward more holistic admissions standards, it’s unsettling that a student’s fate could be determined by an opaque algorithm.”
The adversity index, or overall disadvantage level, or environmental context score — or whatever it’s being called now — is still a limited pilot program. But the initial responses and criticisms show most people thinks it’s a bad idea.
If the SAT hopes to retain its relevancy, it should correct course.
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This is total bull crap! What is the difference in “fixing” the score v.s. paying some fixer to get your child in ahead of someone else? This approach will create more problems than it will solve.
EVERY college and university should write The College Board a letter stating unequivocally that if the “adversity index” is retained, the SAT will no longer be an admissions requirement or factor, and they will go back to their own, locally administered and controlled ENTRANCE EXAMS.
Which used to be a thing, until the CONVENIENCE of SAT scores made them obsolete. Now, if SAT scores cannot be trusted, why use them?
You used to be able to use high ACT / SAT scores to get into MENSA – I doubt they do THAT anymore.
That the SAT is no longer required may be the point; a mere marketing issue.
The great majority of all colleges and universities want to keep the seats warm. They want a consistent flow of bodies and they don’t really care much at all the “quality” of the student they get. This is why so many people attend college now adays,despite the average HS graduate having around a 7th grade reading level. And that’s reading, imagine how lousy their math abilities are. The last two decades have seen a massive push for remedial coursework, and if they could get student loans to cover non-credit classes, then even more people would be filling those seats. I worked at a University (basically open admissions, you pay, you are in) and a slightly selective college back in the day. Even the selective institution had such a huge range of exceptions for low SATs/ACT (athletes) and all the rest that they rarely turned down anybody. They would sometimes not allow them to enter certain majors until they could show they had improved (Usually in Math) enough to pursue specific degrees.
The list of schools that are really highly competitive for getting in is really very small. The big problem is that for decades now at the majority of colleges, kids don’t like to learn, many feel forced into it, basically its a job permit at this point, or year 13 of high school with better parties. Anyone that has taught in Higher Ed could probably tell you that half the students in their class are not capable of doing college level work, and its amazing that they have HS degrees. Some HS degrees may as well be attendance badges, b/c they honestly are more ignorant than many middle school kids at the better schools. Nearly every mega city has a huge portion of students that barely can read, can’t write. No wonder Asians that are poor do as well as the upper class, its b/c they are one of the few subcultures left that aren’t anti-intellectual, lazy, or just plain distracted by phones and vid games that no real learning is going on. The already Recentered the damn SAT twice in the 90’s b/c the math scores kept changing the mean lower. The avg IQ also needs recentered since its no longer 100 and hasn’t been for awhile now. The just change the testing to go with the lesser quality population that is the new America. But we can’t even get these mediocre uninterested students to try and learn a trade, b/c they don’t wan to sweat b/c they were told they would get some sort of cubicle job in AC b/c they are “special” future college grads. The average 8th grader was smarter and more informed 30yrs ago or 100yrs ago then our HS “graduates”(yet 70% of these folks now go onto college).
If what you said is true, how could USA remain competitive and as the only superpower?
Because London and the Vatican allow it…
Not for much longer…
Sample adversity questions:
Is yo mama a ho?
Is yo sista a ho?
How many times has yo mama be on the Maury show?
Do ya have Popeye’s Fried Chicken more that twice a week?
Do yo know who’s your dad?
Did yo get a stolen bike for Christmas?
Do yo wear a pair of $300 sneakers?
Have yo all been arrested more than 6 times?
Do yo have any cuzzins named Leroy / Rufus / Lionel / Rosco?
You haven’t lived till you try Bojangles chicken, just sayin.
The entire college system is a scam.
Step 1 : give somebody 300 extra points for ‘diversity’ or adversity.
Step 2: they get a massive college loan, say $50k for a year w/ living expenses.
Step 3: she says PARTY, and joins the Greeks !
Step 4: Flunk. Those 300 points were a fantasy & she was not prepared at all.
Step 5: Massive life wrecking debt for a decade of working at KMart..
College is so easy now a Cave Man can do it.
The entire college test system run by The College Board and ACT is nothing but a gigantic scam. All of the 50 state board of educations are complicit in all of this and it makes one wonder who is getting their palms greased and how much they are getting. NONE of these expensive tests are necessary. About 16 years ago I took a graduate level course titled “Testing and Assessment”. I will never forget the day when the Kentucky Director for the ASVAB came in and showed us how the ASVAB could be interpreted and used as the universal American college admission test. It would cost the students nothing and does a far better job in both measuring aptitude and achievement, which are two things that the SAT and ACT cannot simultaneously do.
You bigots pleas stop discriminating against niggers. All of us know that they can’t make it unless they have affirmative action. If we use SAT to screen college students there would only be 2 % black students in colleges.
I fail to see a problem.
Why would anybody send their children to college?! The progressive social justice warriors have ruined most of them; where the kids are peer-pressured (or willingly) and force-fed anti western civilization, intolerance, social – marixist tripe, global warming, gender studies, social justice bullshit – the ‘safe space snowflake degree. They get bussed to vote, get extra credit for attending protests! And at the end of their ‘college’ career’ have a six-figure bill due!
I remember waay back when my 1251/1400 was worth something, and well correlated with a lot of expectations that I fulfilled. Intelligence is the white man’s burden.
Too right, Guy.
Having a triple-digit IQ is the true ‘white privilege’.
Unfortunately, we are expected to pretend that it’s not.
Hence all the elaborate obfuscating ‘explanations’ like
‘racism’ and ‘adversity’ to justify continuous failure.