le schoolteachers and college professors to grade the traditional written examinations, the machine scored SAT replace them" (Hanford, 1997, p. 1).
Following WWII, the SAT "continued to serve as the college admissions test...experts believed the meaning of SAT scores to be too technical for laymen to understand, and students were not allowed to know how they had done" (Hanford, 1997, p. 1). The College Board "believed otherwise, and, after a protracted debate that lasted into the middle 1950s, students were...permitted to know their scores" (Hanford, 1997, pp. 1 2). The debate over whether to release the scores led to an allegation that "some admissions officers were discriminating against Jewish candidates by telling them that their SAT scores were too low" (Hanford, 1997, pp. 1 2). Ironically, a tool that was once used to help provide greater opportunity for Jewish and other academically qualified students at Ivy League universities is now the source of a "chilling effect on the motivations and aspirations of under-served populations" (Rooney, 1997, p. 2).
Historically, the public school system and what it produces has long come under criticism (Bracey, 1997, pp. 53 58) and there have been numerous calls for higher academic standards and rigorous student assessments. The pressure to test continued into the late 1970s even in the face of "vigorous debate about
negative effects of testing," although "support for more authentic forms of assessment, rooted in close observation and systematic documentation of children's learning, became more common" (Perrone, 1991, p. 1).
The book, A Nation at Risk (1983), decried the poor academic performance of American students and called for improved accountability," which led to "increases in state requirements for high school graduation...and new state exams" (Cunningham, 1999, p. 2). Testing programs "expanded greatly, especially in kindergarten and primary grades" (Perrone, 1991, p. 1)...