A Study Finds Little Benefit in the Revamped SAT

After reading this article on the New York Times, I was quite amazed. College Board has been trying to create a new style of testing and revamp their tests to a "higher standard" when apparently a study has shown that nothing really has changed. Critics of the new test say, "if that is the best it can do, the extra time, expense and stress on students are not worth it." You would think that people wouldn't necessarily question or criticize it, but, they clearly are. For example from the article, Robert Schaeffer, who's the public education director at FairTest states, “It underpredicts college success for females and those whose best language is not English, and over all, it does not predict college success as well as high school grades, so why do we need the SAT, old or new?”

The author of this article also discusses how College Board states that the students SAT scores "predict" their college success better than their grades in High School. As states by Robert Schaeffer, "Since the new SAT was introduced, 41 colleges and universities have dropped their requirements that applicants submit standardized test scores to be admitted. The College Board reports found that for black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian students — and for girls — SAT scores are slightly more predictive of college success than are high school grades. They also found that scores on the new writing section predict students’ college grades slightly better than scores on the other sections, reading and math."

The revised writing section includes a 25-minute essay, which is a quarter of the writing grade. The other portion of the writing section is multiple choice and makes up the other portion of the grade. Until 2005, when College Board offered a separate writing subject test that was only required by about 75 colleges. Although, when the new test was introduced, many colleges said they wouldn't use the new writing section in making their admission decisions until validity studies showed it helped them make better admission decisions. But, College Board officials said that they hoped the new studies would encourage almost every university to use it. So... 

Why do you think we need the SAT, old or new?