Telling the awful truth about the new SAT ‘adversity’ score

[GURPS]

In his introduction Carlson outlined many problems with the whole idea:

It’s kept a secret. “Trust us,” in effect, they say. There is no appeal possible. And as a black box whose inner workings are secret, it becomes an ideal vehicle for engineering the racial results admissions offices desire.

It is easily gamed – fake addresses, even possible income manipulation (by claiming a lot of depreciation, for instance, the way that Donald Trump reported negative income in the 1980s)

[clip]

But leave it to Heather Mac Donald to cut to the chase: all of this diversity engineering is driven by the seemingly intractable racial achievement gap. If we could close the gap by changing culture, the whole diversity discussion would go away.

She explains that the gap is driven by culture. The “acting white syndrome” common in contemporary black culture stigmatizes effort. The high scores achieved by children of poor Asian immigrant families prove the point. Their parents’ culture emphasizes effort, persistence, and deferred gratification. Those cultural values are not inherent in any race, but are embraced by members of different cultures to different degrees.




The Wall Street Journal expresses the decision factors in this graphic:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blo..._truth_about_the_new_sat_adversity_score.html



Intersectionality meets college admissions

 

[GURPS]

Every student taking the SAT will now be given an 'adversity score' to level the playing field between people with different social and economic backgrounds, but critics say children of affluent parents could be penalized by the new system.

The scoring system was established by the national College Board, the nonprofit which administers the test, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The new system will use 15 different factors to weigh a student's adversity score, based on things such as the crime and poverty rates in the neighborhood where the teens grew up.

Other elements of the adversity index include housing values, family median income, whether a student is a child of a single parent, or speaks English as a second language.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ersity-scores-effort-level-playing-field.html

 

[SamSpade]

It's ridiculous for one clear enough reason - if you want to be inclusive to admit people into college,
you adjust the admissions procedure.

If you're going to change the SAT, why not just change high school GRADES as well? You know, the new
valedictorian got their position not because of perfect grades - but because of a host of other factors of
which grades were a small part. Don't bother working hard for grades - you can always lie about the other stuff.

But this isn't going to work.

Many years ago, I went to an engineering college, and their biggest concern at the time was that women just
weren't getting into it. They tried to admit as many as they could, but they just didn't get enough qualified applicants.
Too many had poor SAT scores and less than stellar grades. The ones they DID admit were very good - one was my girlfriend
(for a while) and she was one of the smartest women I've ever known. Nevertheless, men outnumbered the women by a
factor of about 7 to 1. This was colloquially described as "the ratio". It was always a conversation starter.

So one year, admissions tried something different - they lowered the bar for women admissions. We heard about this,
and at least initially, there was a huge sigh on campus. There'd be more women next year. Hurray. But it wasn't long before
we knew it would be short-lived, because while you can change the admissions process - you still don't change the grading.
After a single semester - most of the new admittees that gained admission from the changed rules had already flunked out.
Some of the female dorms were largely empty. I was in a dorm where a couple of the floors were for women - by January,
they were half gone.

If they want to change things - they need to do a couple things, and they're doing one of them already, that they hadn't
when I was a kid - strongly push the hard sciences and technology as early as middle school - or elementary. Another
is find a way to FUND the education. I knew a woman at school who was the brightest computer science person there -
but she was fortunate enough to be there almost entirely on scholarship, because her family was dirt-poor from West
Virginia. I remember thinking how good it was, that someone as smart as her was able to go to school irrespective of her
family's inability to pay. This doesn't happen often - I know of dozens more at the time who didn't go, because they couldn't
afford it - and this was the 70's. I can't imagine what it's like now.

 

[GURPS]

IMHO the college question could largely be solved by an ASVAB* Style Aptitude Test give at the beginning of High School and after yr 3.

if your skill set or interests show an aptitude for sciences ... then your 'suggested' High School course work is science based with and eye towards College.

If you are better with your hands - you get Shop or Tech related Classes

I would even be willing to 'fund' college for poor people if they

1. Show Apptitude
2. JOBS are available [no poli-sc degrees where you end up a Barista at Starbucks]

with an aggressive repayment schedule


of course Students / Parents should be free to choose Little Suzi's Classes that they wish,
but there will be NO Gov Supported College Financing

You are ON YOUR OWN for that





*[ASVAB was the 80's name for the Military Entrance Exam]

 

[Grumpy]

IMHO the college question could largely be solved by an ASVAB* Style Aptitude Test give at the beginning of High School and after yr 3.

if your skill set or interests show an aptitude for sciences ... then your 'suggested' High School course work is science based with and eye towards College.

If you are better with your hands - you get Shop or Tech related Classes

I would even be willing to 'fund' college for poor people if they

Sounds like "Interstellar"

 

[SamSpade]

IMHO the college question could largely be solved by an ASVAB* Style Aptitude Test give at the beginning of High School and after yr 3.

if your skill set or interests show an aptitude for sciences ... then your 'suggested' High School course work is science based with and eye towards College.

If you are better with your hands - you get Shop or Tech related Classes

You, of course, have to take into consideration what the kid really enjoys or wants to do.
I worked for a guy who got almost straight A's in high school, and had a better grasp of chemistry and physics than I did
in college. He was a home improvement contractor. It's what he enjoyed, and he got a lot better at it, over time.
I had a roommate who managed to make a permanent joke of his awful grades almost all the way through high school -
until he had an epiphany because he worked after school in the chemistry and physics labs, setting up experiments
including electronics. When kids in class started asking HIM how to set up stuff - it dawned on him that he actually understood
it. Got a full scholarship into college.

So you just never know.

 

[kwillia]

Receiving a high school diploma used to signify you had achieved a standard minimum level of education (applicable knowledge) an employer can assume you can apply understanding/performing assigned tasks. Now that we hand out diplomas as participation trophies, employers can no longer give weight to simply obtaining a high school diploma.

Same will happen with college degrees as it becomes the norm to issue them as participation trophies. Employers want skilled employees who can perform not entitled employees who can't but want to be paid just the same.

 

[BernieP]

Receiving a high school diploma used to signify you had achieved a standard minimum level of education (applicable knowledge) an employer can assume you can apply understanding/performing assigned tasks. Now that we hand out diplomas as participation trophies, employers can no longer give weight to simply obtaining a high school diploma.

Same will happen with college degrees as it becomes the norm to issue them as participation trophies. Employers want skilled employees who can perform not entitled employees who can't but want to be paid just the same.

you sound like one of them thar old couts. Talking about you education in 8th grade.

Actually I think 9th or 10th grade was mentioned in the discussion about SAT preparation.
I believe that is highest level of math skill required for the SAT. The other is the ability to use, read, write and comprehend the English language.
The preparation classes teach more a strategy on how to make the best use of your time, when to guess and when not to guess.
I have no quantitative proof, but would agree that we have dumbed down classes for the purpose of generating friendly statistics.
Another number I don't have evidence to support, but I'd say somewhere in the vicinity of 50% of the kids admitted to colleges don't belong there.
They were pushed to go there and their interest and talents lie somewhere else.
I am a big fan of Mike Rowe Works, We are spending to much pushing kids into college when plenty of jobs don't (or shouldn't) require a college degree.
I don't think someone should get extra points for adversity in their life. I would say if I were comparing applicants and each had similar scores and grades, if one had to deal with adversity, I would favor that candidate. Just as extra curricular activities and such are viewed as "extra credit' points.
They don't replace grades and test scores, but they are tie breakers.

 

[GURPS]

Now, we know for damn certain that the rock-bottom “adversity scores” of the pampered brats of the elite in politics, Hollywood, the media and the corporate boardrooms won’t hold them back. The elite’s gonna elite. We saw a few particularly dumb rich people get swooped up by the FBI, but for every past-prime starlet about to method act the role of a convict at a minimum security women’s prison, you know there are a hundred smarter, subtler wealthy cheats whose useless Ashleighs and Kadens are currently wandering the halls of Harvard, Yale and the other Skeevy League campuses, literally shaking because someone expressed a dissenting opinion.

No, these “adversity scores” – like every other scam the elite pulls – are a fraud designed to increase the arbitrary power and control of the ruling class. “Adversity scores” are manifestly not designed to cull out those applicants with the least adversity. They are designed to cull out yourkids in favor of kids in the political demographics the elite prefers. The schools the admissions racketeers gatekeep are the gateways to the elite, and the likes of our spawn need not apply. The talented kids of middle managers, soldiers or other uncool people who probably go to church and do not even subscribe to the New York Times? Forget it. This is another way for our garbage ruling class to promote “diversity,” by which it means a wide range of people who can be brainwashed into sharing the elite’s liberal elitist views.

“Adversity scores” seek to impose (illegal) racial, political and socio-economic quotas without actually saying so by pretending that this is just a new objective, transparent and fair way to evaluate the “whole person.” But, of course, this is obviously baloney, and that’s why they want to hide the process from examination. Moreover, they appear to be creating these bogus standards by embracing every condescending and cheesy stereotypes of the people this is designed to let them select, like single motherhood, poverty and crime. Congrats, hardworking Normal Americans who happen to be of a racial or ethnic minority! In the collective collectivist mind of our crummy elite, you’ve been pegged as ghetto-dwelling delinquents from broken homes.


https://townhall.com/columnists/kur...dworking-kids-of-hardworking-parents-n2546541

 

[GregV814]

Aristotle said “the worst inequity is trying to make all equal...”

 

[Hijinx]

They can call it anything they like, but the fact is they are doing away with putting the best and the brightest into college and just doing another affirmative action plan and putting it into effect in colleges.

 

[Monello]

If this adversity score goes into effect, watch for some smart people figure out how to beat the system. Get a post office box in 1 of the lower zip code towns. Boom, you just got XX more points on your score without doing much.

Just like the illegal invaders. Years ago it was single males coming across. Then they saw how families were handled differently. Now everyone coming is bringing kids. The players change to adapt to the rules of the game.

Years ago on income tax forms, parents had to list their kid's name to qualfiy for the deduction. Then the IRS got smart and kids needed social security numbers, not just names on the form. In 1 year 15 million minor children 'disappeared' from their parent's tax forms. As the players adjust, so do the writers of the rules need to change.

 

[MiddleGround]

All this is doing is allowing the DUMB to set the bar. Just releasing more of the DUMB into the world to masquerade as educationally fit for duty. I feel bad for the bright kids (the ones who would actually cut it on the regular level) who have to sit through and learn at the rate of the DUMB! They get robbed of quality education because now it is based at a lower level because of the DUMB.

And.. don't give me any crap about their "environment." There are multitudes of kids who overcame their "environment" to become successful, intelligent people.

 

[Kyle]

 

[SamSpade]

What does anyone accomplish by this?

Try to imagine if every grade a kid gets on every test is based on some set of rules as to whether it gets an "A" or a "B".

You and I are under the impression that a test is supposed to determine first, if the student knows the answers to what they've
been learning. Gateway classes I took in college - say, entry level engineering classes designed to be tough to weed out
those unable to handle the curricula - are supposed to determine if the student is going to be able to succeed in the classes.

Now - it would appear that actually LEARNING is irrelevant. You create an entrance exam which is more or less meaningless.
It's as though degrees were conferred without respect to any work or learning at all.