Bruce Poch, vice president and admissions dean at Pomona College was recently quoted as saying the following in U.S. News & World Report.
"Grades, without adequate context, aren't of much use, either, because of the radical differences in the way grades are used from school to school and even teacher to teacher," says Bruce Poch, vice president and admissions dean at Pomona College. "Grade inflation in secondary schools is well documented."
In theory I support eliminating the SATs if they are replaced with the subject tests and APs as I agree with the evidence that the APs and subject tests tend to be better predictors of freshmen GPA, but I doubt that's the real reason that everyone is against them nowadays.
With a torrent of lawsuits and public approval turning against them, it's become increasingly clear to admissions officers that they cannot get away with taking students that are exceptionally sub par but who happen to have the preferred pigmentation. One of the obstacles happens to be the use of the SATs in which blacks and Latinos significantly under preform against white and Asian students, even when factoring in society economic status.
Grade inflation is well documented at all high schools. That Mr. Poch felt the need to just mention secondary schools -- which have some of the strictest admissions criteria -- should make us wonder if its really just a way of getting around those high achieving secondary students in favor of lesser qualified, or lesser achieving minorities.
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5 comments:
Dude, with all due respect, %#$& the heck are you talking about?
You DO realize that secondary school is often used generically as a category that includes ALL high schools? And that the only difference is that its slightly broadened to occasionally include grades 7 and 8?
You also realize that Bruce Poch was citing an ISSUE with not using SATs? Which kind of supports your assertion that there is a "preferred pigmentation?" Which is a stupid phrase to begin with, but you only use because it sounds mildly incendiary and you get to wax on pedantically about how its not *actually* racialist?
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe you, esteemed blogger of 75,000 unique guests, know better than the Dean of Admissions who should be let into his college.
Y'all need to seriously consider peer editing each other. For every post.
Charles, it seems to me that Dean Poch is making an important point that grades alone aren't enough evidence to suggest how a student will perform in college because of rampant grade inflation in high schools. However, I'm not sure that means that the SATs should be the one criteria used for admission to college.
Did you have perfect grades or SAT scores? I bet CMC found other reasons to admit you beyond merely considering your GPA or test scores. This seems to be the case for all students in Claremont - even those that you describe as having a "preferred pigmentation."
My sense is that all students at the colleges worked hard to get here and are deserving, regardless of their race or ethnicity. You may disagree, but before we talk about admitting "lesser qualified" Black and Latino students we should not forget that some legacies, development cases, and athletes are probably given much more of an advantage in admission to college...regardless of their test scores.
Shouldn't you also be pointing your finger at them, too?
as citizenx noted, secondary school is what educators call 9-12 grades. You should do a little research (not much) before you go assuming to the betterment of your preconceived ideas. Oh, and until you start getting it right, please ask the CMC to take you off the website. Its is embarassing.
Thanks for the help on secondary schools. (I was of the impression that secondary schools were only prep schools, my apologies.)
Expect an article sooner rather than later that shows what I'm talking about with respect to the sub par students.
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