ERIC Number: EJ1235212
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1539-9664
EISSN: N/A
Support Builds for Making the SAT Untimed for Everyone: A Possible Solution to the "Gaming the System" Problem
Toppo, Greg
Education Next, v20 n1 p42-49 Win 2020
Accommodations, deserved or undeserved, have been under the microscope in 2019. They played a prominent role in this year's Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, with prosecutors alleging that wealthy parents persuaded willing psychologists to say their child needed extra time in special testing centers--in a few cases, ringers proctored the exam and cheated on a student's behalf. The "New York Times" reported from court filings that in one case, William Singer, the scandal's mastermind, told a parent that for $4,000 or $5,000, a psychologist he worked with would attest that his child needed more time. As schools grapple with these realities, a few educators, researchers, and psychologists have begun to wonder whether it is time to make a fundamental change to tests like the SAT so that they are harder to game. More broadly, they ask: If success in college is about 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, close reading, and collaboration, should gate-keeping tests such as the SAT be timed at all? Advocates argue that making the test untimed for everyone would make it harder for rich or well-connected parents to game the system, and also might do a better job of measuring students' true capabilities.
Descriptors: College Entrance Examinations, Individualized Education Programs, Thinking Skills, Timed Tests, Critical Thinking, Academic Accommodations (Disabilities), Learning Disabilities, High School Students, Justice
Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://educationnext.org/journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: SAT (College Admission Test)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A