SAT和ACT真的没用了吗？

现在已经有超过60%的美国大学，在本科申请中不再要求学生提供SAT、ACT或其他标准考试的成绩，有不少甚至更进一步，即使学生递交了标准考试成绩，审核时也完全不看。那么是不是说SAT/ACT被抛弃已是定数了呢？其实我们之前就谈过，这仍然是一个有争议的话题，没有定论。各个学校的看法是不一样的，现在有不少大学，包括MIT、哈佛、布朗这样的名校，都觉得还是应该要求标考成绩。

而且很遗憾的一点，这已经变成了一个政治化议题，也就是说，是否取消SAT已经不是单纯为了对学生更公平有利，还取决于各大学是站在激进派一方还是传统派一方。我们今天就转载来自反方的一篇报道，看看各大名校招生官的真实看法：

SAT defended from 'misguided' attacks as test increasingly becomes optional for students

'It's not politically correct,' the Georgetown admissions dean said of supporting the SAT

ByJeffrey ClarkFox News

Standardized testing for college admissions has come under intense scrutiny, especially during the COVID pandemic. But some administrators and testing experts are arguing that the backlash against tests like the SAT and ACT is unfair and based on little evidence, according toThe New York Times.

"[A] growing number of experts and university administrators wonder whether the switch has been a mistake," New York Times reporter David Leonhardt wrote in a feature on the trend away from testing requirements at U.S. colleges.

标准化考试作为大学入学的评估手段受到了很大的质疑，尤其在COVID疫情期间。但一些校方人员和测试专家认为，对SAT和ACT的反对是不公平的，并且缺乏足够的证据。《纽约时报》记者大卫·莱昂哈特在一篇关于美国大学放弃考试要求趋势的专题中写道：“越来越多的专家和大学怀疑这种改变是一个错误。”

"Research has increasingly shown that standardized test scores contain real information, helping to predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success,"Leonhardt wrote in a featurefrom Sunday. "Test scores are more reliable than high school grades, partly because of grade inflation in recent years."

“越来越多的研究表明，标准化考试成绩包含了真实信息，有助于预测学生将来的大学成绩、毕业率、和毕业后的事业成功，”莱昂哈特在一篇周日的专题中写道。“考试分数比高中成绩GPA更可靠，部分原因是近年来的美高GPA成绩出现了不少水分。”

Some administrators at America's top universities agree that tests like the SAT and ACT are valuable predictors of academic success. "Standardized test scores are a much better predictor of academic success than high school grades," president of Brown University Christina Paxsonwrote in a letterpublished in June.

一些美国顶尖大学的官员们同意，像SAT和ACT这样的考试，对预测学生在大学学习的成功有很大的价值。“标准化考试成绩比高中成绩GPA能更好地预测大学学习成功”布朗大学校长克里斯蒂娜·帕克森在6月发表的一封信中写道。

Dean of admissions at MIT Stuart Schmill told the Times that grades did not tell the entire story of a student. "Just getting straight A’s is not enough information for us to know whether the students are going to succeed or not," Schmill said.

麻省理工学院招生主任斯图尔特·舒米尔告诉时报，GPA成绩并不能完全反映一个学生的全部情况。“只是得到全A并不足够让我们知道学生是否会成功，”舒米尔说。

Schmill has also argued that MIT, one of the few elite institutions in the U.S. that maintained its testing requirement, actually increased diversity on campus. "Once we brought the test requirement back, we admitted the most diverse class that we ever had in our history," Schmill told The Times. "Having test scores was helpful."

舒米尔还指出，作为美国为数不多保持标考成绩要求的精英机构之一，麻省理工实际上增加了校园学生的多样性。“在我们恢复了考试要求后，我们录取了历史上最多元化的年级，”舒米尔告诉时报。“标考成绩是有帮助的。”

"Test scores have vastly more predictive power than is commonly understood in the popular debate," Brown University economics professor John Friedman said. Friedman was one of theauthors of a studyon the importance of testing for highly selective colleges in the U.S.

“在当前社会流行的争论中，大家普遍低估了标考成绩的强大预测能力，”布朗大学经济学教授约翰·弗里德曼说。弗里德曼是一项关于标考成绩对美国顶尖大学重要性的研究的作者之一。

Liberals have led the outcry against standardized testing, claiming that the tests discriminate against Black and Hispanic students, who tend to score lower than White and Asian students.

自由主义者一直在强烈反对标准化测试，声称这些测试歧视黑人和西班牙裔学生，他们的分数往往低于白人和亚裔学生。

Leonhardt, however, objected to the argument that "racial and economic gaps in SAT and ACT scores" prove that the "tests are biased.""After all, most measures of life in America — on income, life expectancy, homeownership and more — show gaps," he wrote for the New York Times. "No wonder: Our society suffers from huge inequities. The problem isn’t generally with the statistics, however. The relatively high Black poverty rate is not a sign that the statistic is biased. Nor would scrapping the statistic alleviate poverty."

然而，莱昂哈特反对“不同种族和贫富群体中的SAT/ACT分数有较大差异”，就说明了“标考是带歧视偏见”的论点。“总的来说，美国生活的大多数方面 —— 收入、预期寿命、房屋拥有率等等 —— 都存在差异，”他在纽约时报上写道，“没错，我们的社会存在巨大的不平等。然而问题通常不在于这些统计数据结果。相对较高的黑人贫困率并不意味着该统计数据有歧视偏见。取消或忽视该统计数据也并不能缓解贫困。”

"When you don’t have test scores, the students who suffer most are those with high grades at relatively unknown high schools, the kind that rarely send kids to the Ivy League," Harvard economist David Deming said. "The SAT is their lifeline."

“当大学录取没有标考成绩时，受害最多的是那些在相对不知名的高中取得高GPA的学生，这类高中的学生很少进入常春藤大学，”哈佛经济学家大卫·德明说，“SAT是他们的救命稻草。”

Other professors advocate for an entirely revolutionary admissions system tohigher education. University of California Riverside professor Eddie Comeaux told The Times that "[h]aving a lottery" would force the education system to "radically rethink what it means to gain access and also to learn, rather than accepting the status quo."

其他教授主张对高等教育进行完全革命性的招生制度。加利福尼亚大学河滨分校教授埃迪·科默克斯告诉时报，“进行彩票抽签”将迫使教育系统“彻底重新思考获得通行权和学到东西的含义，而不是接受现状”

Some school administrators said that the conversation about standardized testing is a highly political one. For progressives, supporting tests like the SAT and ACT can be dangerous."It’s not politically correct," Georgetown University admissions dean Charles Deacontold Intelligencer in a 2022 interview.

一些校方人员表示，关于标化考试的讨论是一个高度政治化的话题。对于所谓进步人士来说，支持像SAT和ACT这样的测试是危险的。“支持标化考试不是政治正确的，”乔治敦大学招生主任查尔斯·迪肯在2022年接受Intelligencer采访时说。