Use of the Scholastic Aptitude Test The Scholastic Aptitude Test

At the present time, over 90 percent of all American colleges and universities require applicants to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test and submit results of that test in order to gain admission. Approximately 1.7 million students take this test each year. However, the test has been questioned by many groups in terms of validity and appropriateness. How was this test developed and how appropriate is it as a measure of student aptitude for higher education?

There were a number of agencies interested in measuring intelligence during the period between World War I and World War II. Their interests were not always altruistic. Indeed, the originator of the Scholastic Aptitude Test sought to design an intelligence measure that would identify superior racial stock. He believed that the United States was being damaged by its diversity and thought that Jews, Catholics, Eastern Europeans and others were of less intelligence than other ethnic groups in the country (Brigham, 1923). He was particularly worried about the impact of Blacks on the genetic pool of intelligence. He wanted to design a test that would identify superior intelligence (which he equated with superior genetic, ethnic stock) and reward those individuals.

Brigham developed the first Scholastic Aptitude Test in the early 1920s, working with the College Entrance Examination Board. The College Entrance Examination Board merged with oth

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le information to determine how applicants will do grade-wise during their first year. Indeed, Gottfredson and Crouse (1986) indicated that the SAT is mildly correlated with high school grade rank, and that it does not provide very much new information. They noted that 90 percent of the decisions to admit student would be the same whether the SAT was used in conjunction with the grade rank or not. In other words, grade rank would probably be sufficient in most instances, and could be combined with other characteristics to give similar, and equally valid (or invalid) results in predicting freshman grade point average. Crouse and Trusheim (1988) further argued that even the minimal correlation of the SAT with freshman college grades, which is the claimed purpose, does not support the widespread use of the SAT as any kind of predictor of college success. There are much better indicators of that, including high school grades and coursework. Bias and the SAT According to Elert (1997), the SAT is not a measure of how successful an individual will be in college, but a measure of how well that individual conforms to the demographics of the group that performed well on the original exam developed by Carl Brigham. In other words, the
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