The SAT Passes

Two years ago the uses and abuses of SATs. LSATs, MCATs and other standardized exams held national prominence as education's hottest controversy. But earlier this month when the National Research Council finally issued its long-awaited report on the subject, the document caused little stir. Instead most educators seem to have accepted the report as a near-comprehensive survey that lays most major questions to rest.

The 242-page report concludes in essence that because standardized test results are not perfect indications of student talent they should be used with care and skepticism, but that in general the tests improve rather than binder students access to higher education.

The committee also found that minority students, who as a group have been observed to score lower than whites, are victims not of a bias in the tests themselves but of "misuse of scores by some admissions officers." Systematic variations in scores, not only between whites and minorities but between richer and poorer students, tend to reflect different educational opportunities inherent in society, the report adds.

Educators on the Committee on Ability Testing, which prepared the report for the council, say the only strident public reaction so far has come the small group of standardized testing critics who believe the report lets the tests off too easily.

The findings against social bias in the tests have drawn fire from consumer advocates Ralph Nader and Allan Nairn, who co-authored a 1980 report on test bias that led to legislation in New York State forcing partial disclosure of SAT results.

Nader and Nairn denounced the committee's report two weeks ago calling it "a compilation of the testing industry line on various issues." Rep Theodore S. Weiss (D N Y), who has twice proposed federal Truth in Testing bills to regulate the tests, called the recommendations disappointingly moderate.

But Oscar Handlin a University Professor and a committee member, yesterday challenged the attacks, saying. "In a democratic society some standardized testing is essential though it could be made better." Of the truth-in-testing supporters he added. "I think they're mostly nuts."

The committee spent much of its time "conceding possible objections" and cautioning test users against possible misuse. Handlin said, adding that the final results "go as far as any reasonable report could go."

But Robert E. Klitgaard '68, special assistant to President Bok who last year wrote a controversial report that found SAT scores slightly overpredicted grades for minority students here, said new results on bias were "no surprise" and were "entirely consistent" with his own findings.

"I don't know what the problem is." Klitgaard said of the Nader and Nairn reactions, adding that the disagreements about prediction are not so much about the actual statistics as what admission offices should do about them. Critics of testing recommend eliminating standardized tests altogether, and "try to imply that it makes no difference [in prediction] whether you use scores or not." Klitgaard said Such an approach "masks idealogical value questions in a scientific aura," he added.

Harvard admissions officers last week said the report is unlikely to have any effect on policies here. The report recommended that "all institutions but the most selective" reevaluate their standardized testing policies.

While cautioning against the use of cutoff scores in any admissions decisions, the committee members acknowledged that scores become more useful at schools whose admission offices have "an embarrassment of riches." Lyle V. Jones, a committee member and researcher at the University of North Carolina, said yesterday.