New Film Criticizes SAT, But There’s More to the Story

Jed Applerouth, PhD
May 16, 2018
#
min read

Michael Arlen Davis’s new documentary, The Test and the Art of Thinking, examines the role of the SAT in college admissions and in our society. The film explores the origins of the SAT and its role in education and society. The film takes a strong anti-testing position and questions the merits of using tests like the SAT in college admissions.

I was eager to view the film, as I spent many hours interacting with the team of filmmakers, sharing my own research, and spending 4 hours in front of the camera discussing all manner of educational and testing topics. I personally find the topic of college admissions and testing fascinating, and it was nice to interact with a creative team that shared my interest. The problem of college admissions is a fascinating one. How does a society allocate scarce educational resources? Who gets to go to which college and how is the decision made? Every nation has to figure out a solution to this problem. And many nations use some form of standardized assessment to allocate scarce seats at selective colleges and universities.

I had hoped the film would engage in a balanced analysis of the use of the SAT in college admissions, but it took a clearly anti-testing position. There is nothing inherently wrong with a documentary that is singularly critical of the SAT, but in my perspective, an argument loses some of its validity when only one position is explored. Many of the reviews pointed out the clear anti-testing slant: from Edweek to the LA Times, Village Voice, Hollywood Reporter, and others.

Alternate Viewpoints Left Unexplored

Many of the chief critics of the SAT had their say in the film: Bill Hiss, former Dean of Admissions of Bates College; Martha Allman, Dean of Admissions of Wake Forest; Bob Schaeffer, founder of FairTest.org all spoke against requiring the SAT for admissions. Remarkably absent from the discussion were those admissions directors who see clear value and utility in using testing to build a class. There are thousands of colleges across the country that rely upon standardized tests like the SAT and ACT to inform their admissions decisions. But the filmmakers chose to interview colleges that had dropped the SAT/ACT requirement rather than those that continue to find it beneficial in their admissions process.

Testing has its flaws, but it brings something of use. It serves as a valuable, and, many would say, necessary, hedge against the mounting tide of grade inflation: that was ignored by the film. Testing is a helpful predictor of college GPA, major selection, retention, graduation and graduate school attendance, but this was likewise ignored by the film-makers. Colleges use testing coupled with grades and rigor to inform their admissions decisions, but the filmmakers never explored the potential benefits of using testing in admissions.

Dated Critiques

The documentary also critiqued many aspects of the test that are no longer meaningful, given the substantial redesign of the SAT. The SAT in its current form has little resemblance to the test it once was. In the film I personally critiqued the now defunct SAT essay, which has thankfully been replaced with a dramatically improved essay, assessing reading skills and critical thinking skills rather than blindly rewarding complex sentence structure and vocabulary absent sound facts and reasoning. The focus on aptitude, emphasized by the film, has little relevance for the redesigned SAT which is more of an achievement test, modeled heavily on the Common Core curriculum standards used by the vast majority of schools in the country.

Tutoring and Test Prep Selectively Portrayed

The filmmakers interviewed tutors who focused on the use of tricks and test-taking strategies in their approach to prep. Preparing for any test will always involve some measure of good test taking strategy, but that’s only one aspect of the preparation. Any experienced tutor will tell you that solid preparation involves understanding the concepts tested, and most tutors spend ample time with their students to enhance or solidify this understanding so that they can approach the test material with confidence.

Now, more than ever before, the SAT assesses mastery of content. The redesigned SAT has eliminated the utility of most of the tricks of old. These days, SAT tutors are essentially math, grammar, and reading teachers. The filmmakers didn’t highlight the fact that many SAT tutors view their primary role as educators. I attempted to make a stand for good test prep that is student-focused and grounded in solid pedagogy, but the only remnants of my 4-hours of interviews to make the final cut involved discrete criticisms of testing and the preparation industry.

Closing

The film taps into an important conversation that is taking place in education right now. What is the appropriate role of testing? And how can we ensure that we employ the right tests for the right purposes? Depending on how we as a society answer these questions - what are the consequences in terms of educational policy, instruction and pedagogy, fairness and equity? Critics of the SAT will find that this film explores many of the arguments that they have raised over the years. But so much was left out. For those of us looking for a more nuanced understanding of the pros and cons of testing, the benefits and flaws, this film offers little to advance that conversation.

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