Should SATs Matter?

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But SAT IIs (their name too was sanitized of meaning--they used to be Achievement Tests) have also spawned prep courses and racial score gaps. SAT II prep is actually more expensive than SAT I coaching, because most students take three separate SAT II exams, chosen from 22 subject areas. "[The SAT II] doesn't begin to approach a kind of equity solution," says University of Chicago dean Ted O'Neill.

College officials who de-emphasize the SAT usually focus more on evaluating the high schools that students come from. "If we don't have SAT any longer, we'll have to weigh more heavily on what's left--the students' GAP, their curriculum of college-prep courses and other things," says Rae Lee Siporin, admissions director of ucla, which receives more applications each year--about 40,000--than any other U.S. college. But those measures can amplify the inequalities among high schools even more than the SAT. As Duke University admissions director Christoph Guttentag notes, "The students in school districts with more resources will be more equipped."

Take Advanced Placement classes, the top-level high school courses sponsored by the College Board. APs can help kids earn college credit early, but many high schools can't afford the superqualified teachers and advanced books required for AP classrooms. A California study found that the availability of AP offerings in a school decreases as the percentage of minority and low-income students increases. In 1999, the A.C.L.U. sued the state of California, accusing U.C. schools of favoring applicants who have taken APs. Rasheda Daniel, a plaintiff, says she and her classmates didn't have an equal chance of getting into U.C. "When you look at a lot of high schools, there are gross disparities across class lines," she says. "It's not fair."

Daniel's contention is right and explains why no admissions scheme can be totally equitable. Some reformers say Florida and Texas come closest. By law, the public universities in those states must offer admission to all who graduate in the top 20% (Florida) or 10% (Texas) of their class, no matter how poor their high school. Public universities in both states still use SATs, however--Florida to sort out which kids will go to the larger, more presitigious colleges, Texas to decide who needs retention programs.

Of course, Florida and Texas lawmakers weren't attacking the SAT itself. They wanted to maintain diverse campuses even though affirmative action had been banned in their states. Conservatives suspect U.C.'s Atkinson has the same motive. Those who favor affirmative action have long wanted to ignore SAT scores, says Ward Connerly, a U.C. regent and anti-affirmative-action activist. (Atkinson has said he wasn't motivated by race.) Connerly believes moving away from standard measures like the SAT will mean colleges lose their fundamental goal of academic excellence. "Looking at a student's potential and the adversity they've overcome--what I call the Academic Misery Index--has the potential of totally reforming college," he says, turning campuses into institutions that value diversity and community service over learning.