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Thank you, Karla.
"Sanders, Karla" wrote:
> Business Leaders Urge Colleges to Give Less Weight to Standardized Tests in
> Admissions
> By ERIC HOOVER
> In a strongly worded letter to college presidents, corporate leaders on
> Wednesday urged academic officials to place less emphasis on the SAT and
> other standardized tests when evaluating applicants. Executives from
> companies like Shell Oil and Verizon Communications, joined by members of
> the National Urban League, said in the letter that entrance exams do not
> measure the qualities most crucial for success in the business world.
> The letter did not recommend abandoning the SAT altogether, but urged
> colleges to improve admissions tools that measure applicants' creativity,
> leadership skills, and commitment to their communities. "In corporate
> America, we routinely place bets on people, including many top-flight
> executives who may not have excelled 'on paper,' but who demonstrated the
> leadership, grit and determination needed to succeed," the letter reads. "We
> can think of no better investment than to forge a sensible and fair balance
> in admissions policies."
> The letter coincided with the release of a new survey from the National
> Urban League's Institute for Opportunity, in which 96 percent of 200
> business executives interviewed said that standardized-test scores were "not
> very important" to long-term success in business. In the survey, "Spotting
> Talent and Potential in the Business World," 91 percent rated "character" --
> defined as integrity, determination, and the ability to overcome obstacles
> -- as the most crucial attribute for professional achievement. Furthermore,
> of the executives who could recall their SAT or ACT scores, 37 percent had
> scored between 1000 and 1299, more than fell into any other category.
> "In the real world, we've seen that success doesn't necessarily mean scoring
> a 1400 on the SAT, but there's a talented pool of applicants with slightly
> lower scores who aren't deemed meritorious or academically ready by top-tier
> institutions," said Hugh B. Price, president and chief executive officer of
> the National Urban League. Colleges "need to make more sophisticated
> judgments by broadening their qualitative selection criteria, especially
> because attacks on affirmative action have caused many schools to focus more
> on quantitative assessments of applicants."
> Since February, when the University of California's president, Richard C.
> Atkinson, proposed dropping the requirement that applicants take the SAT,
> critics of standardized testing have reiterated Mr. Atkinson's call for more
> "holistic" admissions policies. Yet determining how to measure applicants'
> so-called intangible qualities has proved difficult.
> Chiara Coletti, a spokeswoman for the College Board, which owns the SAT,
> cited the writing component of the SAT 2 exam as one example of how tests
> can be used to evaluate student creativity, but she noted that there are few
> agreed-upon criteria for measuring the personal qualities that the Urban
> League survey mentions. "It's right to say that standardized tests don't
> measure leadership skills, but they aren't intended to," Ms. Coletti said.
> The institute's survey represents the first time that a large number of
> corporate leaders have weighed in with an opinion on standardized tests, but
> it does not necessarily express a representative view of the business
> community, according to Susan Trainan, director of the Education Initiative
> Program at the Business Roundtable.
> "Because many business leaders support standardized testing as a crucial
> component of education reform, they don't support altering existing
> quantitative standards as the way to open doors of opportunity to all
> students," Ms. Trainan said. "But given most companies' interest in having a
> diverse work force, I don't think you'd find anyone who believes that tests
> are the only tool."
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