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OPINION COMMENTARY
Even the SAT Has Become Political
The exam should follow dinner etiquette and stay away from controversial topics such as religion, politics and sex.
By
TRIP APLEY
Feb. 16, 2017 7:13 p.m. ET wsj.com
As more than six million high-school students do every year, I sat down to take the College Board’s SAT exam on Dec. 3, 2016. The test was going well until I reached the essay question, which asks students to assess how an author of an article supports his claims.
The basic concept was easy enough, but I was surprised by the source our essay was supposed to be based on. We were asked to analyze a February 2014 Huffington Post article supporting the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act. The author: New York’s junior senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who had recently introduced the legislation.
It wouldn’t be appropriate to have an SAT essay question using an article from a conservative blog about reasons to ban late-term abortion. And it is equally inappropriate to force students to focus their attention on a one-sided argument from one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate.
The exam made clear that the “essay should not explain whether you agree with” the article. It should only “explain how the author builds an argument to persuade.” Still, why would a controversial political topic be selected for this evaluation? Why a divisive, partisan issue? We would have had the same educational benefit if the SAT provided an article about banning laptops in school. Maybe the SAT essay should follow the rule of topics that are appropriate for dinner conversation: no religion, politics or sex.
The SAT is an assessment tool and not a mechanism to promote a political agenda to millions of impressionable students. This article might be the only point of view some students ever hear about paid leave, and they are required not only to read it but to restate its central arguments. Educators know that writing down facts is an effective way to retain information. Students should be memorizing algebraic equations, not arguments for progressive labor policy.
Data from the Federal Election Commission show that College Board executives have an overwhelming preference for Democratic candidates. The College Board also spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that a prominent Democratic senator’s piece was chosen, but I’m not convinced. (A spokeswoman said that “College Board is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization.”)
Groups like Americans for Educational Testing Reform have criticized the College Board for its “unacceptable political manipulation” and overly generous executive salaries. With its nonprofit status, the College Board bears an inherent responsibility to all students. Perhaps being located in high-rent, extremely liberal New York City has changed the organization’s perception of not only what is affordable for students, but also what topics are reasonable for a national standardized test.
If you want the exact wording of the questions on an SAT you took, there is an $18 fee. And for some reason, the organization won’t even release the article in question.
—Mr. Apley is a senior at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Mich. |
