Debate
The assigned text is about whether colleges should still require SAT or ACT to seek admission at many U.S. colleges. The debate was taken from The New York Times and contained two sections about the title’s question. The author establishes the premise of
debate by stating that nearly 4 million students took the said test to get admission in colleges. However, there were several complaints that the test was biased and unfair. In the first section of the debate, we read about the
- arguments made by Wayne Camara, who is Horace Mann Research Chair of ACT. She is a supporter of the SAT, and her main argument for her support is the claim that “standardized test scores help colleges make better, fairer decisions.” he uses logical
reasoning to back her claim that the SAT is the unique way of verifying students’ readiness on the same scale due to
differences in courses and grade inflation in schools.
Similarly, the SAT is an unbiased test that does take account of gender, race, and background of applicants. These tests can help institutes in making better decisions for students. On the other hand, Bob Schaeffer, who is a Public Education Director of FairTest, begs to differ in this debate. His main argument is the proclamation that states that the ACT and SAT have built-in biases that favor whi
te, affluent students. He further argues that if 1000 U.S. schools do not require formal SAT to award degrees, other institutes should not be obliged to go through SAT or ACT procedures. According to him, these tests are not a level playing field for all students because most minority group applicants do not score well in tests due to bias. He gives proper reason for this bias by suggesting
that rich students can afford preparation t
hat
allows them to score high in the test compared to students belonging to
low-income families. This implies that the
score represents th
e socio-economic background instead of his individual skill. At the end of his argument, he states that nearly 200 schools have omitted ACT/SAT requirements so other schools can follow too.