The SAT isnt racist but woke activists sure are

Did you know that the SAT is racist?During Woke I, as Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now calls it, “antiracists” said the SAT’s creators “were avowed eugenicists.”   No wonder black people get lower scores, went the claim.And even if the test isn’t racist today, woke activists said, it still gives unfair advantages to white kids because their parents are more likely to afford SAT tutoring.As anti-SAT ads from activist groups like FairTest put it: “Real learning is not standardized, so why judge children just by test scores?”During Woke I, FairTest won.Most colleges stopped requiring the test for admissions.  That was ironic, given that standardized tests once brought students from underrepresented groups into colleges.After tests helped Jews get into college in the 1920s, Harvard even reduced focus on tests — to “prevent a dangerous increase in the proportion of Jews.” I confronted FairTest’s executive director, Bob Schaeffer, and pointed out that SATs are the best predictor of whether a kid will thrive in college.He scoffed at that, saying testing companies just want money.“The College Board is a billion-dollar-a-year business,” he said, “like the tobacco industry — giving you the best spin on what they can do.”I pushed back: “If you’re a Latino immigrant who goes to a lousy high school but you test well, you’ve got a shot.”“There are actually very few examples of that being true,” he replied.Actually, there are many examples.College Board data shows students with C+ grades but great SAT scores do better in college than A+ students with lower SAT scores.Better test scores do strongly predict success.Nevertheless, during Woke I, cowardly college administrators did what progressives told them to do.Most colleges dropped the test.It was just unfair.Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal points out that dropping the test made it easier for colleges to do to Asians what they once did to Jews.

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