Pitzer College Certainly Isn't Diverse! And Efforts to Eliminate the SATs Lead to Discrimination

Eliminating the SAT could keep her out of the college of her dreams.

Today's Los Angeles Times's Homeroom blog briefly mentions Pitzer College as one of the many schools that has done away with SATs and ACTs as a means of accessing high school student achievement.

I quote the author, Ms. Phoebe Smolin, a junior at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. (As you can probably surmise, the bolding is mine.)

Some colleges, such as Pitzer College, Bates College, and Hampshire College, do not require SAT or ACT scores. The statistics from these colleges show that their students tend to be more diverse, more creative, and more open to a variety of subjects. Also, the graduation rate is nearly the same as colleges that require the exams. I would also think that a classroom full of students who scored 2300 (out of a possible 2400) on the SAT would be, bluntly, boring!

There's a lot to attack here, but let me first lay my cards on the table.

I freely admit that the ACT and SAT are an imperfect measure of the aptitude for collegiate work, but -- and this is a big but -- standardized tests can be used as a means of differentiating students from one another.

That said, I find no statistical evidence that the students at Pitzer College are "more creative" or "more open to a variety of subjects." In fact, as Aditya has mentioned, I find that they (and their administration) are downright hostile to conservative, libertarian, or even moderate positions. Pitzer College is rated, after all, by the Princeton Review, as one of the most liberal colleges in America.

Moreover, as Janet Alexander has examined in one of the latest issues of The Claremont Independent, many of these "diversity" drives are discrimination by another name. And even with that other name "diversity," they are still odious.

Diversity efforts may actually end up discriminating against Asian-Americans, a group Daniel Golden has dubbed the "new Jews," a reference to the discriminatory practices passed against Jews by American universities.

Many of our current traditions, like the college interview actually stems from this practice to keep the Jews out. As noted in the book, The Chosen, the admissions interview was an effort to keep Jews -- seen as not social and too hardworking -- out of the universities.

It's in keeping with this desire to keep the hard working, but diversely unpopular students from attending universities that administrators want to eliminate the SATs. They say they want to do it because it is a bad predictor and that it is bad for minorities or some such other business.

More likely, the reason to eliminate SATs or ACTs is to allow the colleges free rein to pick and choose who they want to admit. The net effect of this elimination is that colleges can pick the students without any regard to standardized achievement.

I think that the reason colleges have been eliminating SATs and ACTs is so that won't be sued as easily on discrimination claims.

As law suits like those filed by Jian Li, a Yale undergraduate who, "despite perfect SAT scores, near-perfect achievement test scores, nine AP classes, and a class rank in the top 1 percent at Livingston High School in New Jersey," was "rejected by Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, while getting into Yale, Cooper Union, Rutgers, and Cal Tech." Li is suing Princeton on the grounds that he was rejected because he is an Asian-American.

Li's complaint would sound much weaker if you eliminated all the tests from his resume. All he would be left with is 1 percent class rank. As class rank is, unfortunately, subject to grade inflation and grade padding, high schools could make their students more desirable by encouraging their teachers to inflate grades. And then suddenly you have thousands of students applying with straight A's.

Best to keep some system of accountability, however imperfect.

Oh and another thing, as for a classroom where all of the students get 2300 out of 2400 on their SATs. I don't think boring would be the word I would use to describe it. I don't think high achievers on a test indicate demeanor. If that were so, then all the students who get an A in a class might somehow think alike.

If we are more than the grades or numbers we receive on standardized tests, than I don't think we should have a problem challenging each other to explore the frontiers of human knowledge.

I, of course, wouldn't be welcome in that hypothetical classroom. I didn't score a 2300. But then again, there are many colleges in this most wonderful world -- some involve books, others involve real world tests-- and I can always find an education as long as I have a pulse. I don't need a school to discriminate for or against me.