What was the reasoning for ACTs/SATs?

[Kludge]

It seems to me that the most logical way for education to work is to have primary and secondary schools work independently and with no gov't scrutiny. Colleges could then give entrance exams/essays to check the intelligence (or whatever it is they are looking for) the the applicant and grant them admission based on that and possibly an interview. Colleges' (and the college graduates') reputation would still be based on how effective colleges are perceived to be at preparing them.

It seems so simple and perfect that I feel like I'm missing something so big that I'll kick myself out of shame later. I mean, even if schools remain an "entitlement" as they are now, there doesn't seem to be any reason at all for ACTs and/or SATs. (Almost?) Every state already has exams which determine the effectiveness of schools, so a federal program seems cumbersome and pointless. Standardized testing does NOTHING to increase education and is an incredible detriment to real learning. Instead of passing along wisdom and relevant facts, teachers must give Scantron quizzes and base their lesson plan on what will be on the standardized tests. It's a shame that so much is being wasted on "education" when it seems to do nothing except to create aimless robots without perception and who are oblivious to their surroundings.

[pacelli]

Standardized educational tests are created & given by companies, not governments. Students generally have a choice between taking the SAT or the Millers Analogies Test. The SAT is created by a company called College Board. Public as well as private colleges & universities decided to accept these products because the tests provide a cut-off that allow them to accept or deny applications. The theory is that if you get above a certain cut-off score, it is supposed to be predictive of first-year college GPA. This way the college or university is not overwhelmed by kicking students out, and can focus on "education".

The problem is that the predictive validity of the SAT is quite poor. The College Board in 2005 added a section to their test which they claim increased the validity of the test, yet it only increased the correlational coefficient by .01, so it was a massive waste of time.

[SimpleName]

I do good on standardized tests. Surprisingly well. Not sure why. But anyway, as the previous poster noted, I believe it is just a cutoff. It is just a way to eliminate candidates easily. It is really quite sad and shows the time greed of these colleges. A student could be an excellent learner and hard worker, but not get in to a top notch college because he doesn't take standardized tests well. There should never be a test that is so complex as to have demand for guides on HOW to take it. This isn't a game, goddamnit! It is education!

[Kludge]

Odd... Michigan must have a fairly unique law. My public high school required we take the ACTs and MMEs (Michigan Merit Exam) and that they absolutely had to be taken together by law (I had to retake both the ACTs and MMEs because one of my MME test forms didn't match my answer booklet # -- one of my counselors actually filed suit with the state to allow me to take the MMEs separately on one day instead of taking both for three days and was denied). Not that I'm complaining -- my ACTs went from 24 to 26 and there's no charge on taking the ACT here.

[Matisa]

College needs to be flexible ! Yes ACTs and SATs are a measurement of what a young person should know before they enter college, But what about those older students? Would you expect a person of say 30 or 40 years old to beable to pass those test with out some kind of education, since highschool was so long ago?
Probably not.

The working world is ever changeing and so is the economy we need to beable to roll with the changes so every one can keep on striveing to sirvive. And we don't end up haveing an economy full of young people only and no real life experience.

[yongrel]

It's just more data for the colleges to base their decision on. To succeed in college requires a different skillset than succeeding in high school, and with the SAT or ACt colleges don't have to rely on GPA (which may or may not be a good predictor) alone.