Almost a year and half after the College Board announced it would develop a new SAT I examination, university officials said they are still unsure what effect the revised test will have on admissions processes and on students' preparation for a college education.
A number of admissions officers have adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding the test, acknowledging that the full effects of the change will not be known until years after the first scores are sent out to colleges nationwide. Under the new test, to be administered for the first time in March 2005, high school juniors and seniors will be scored out of 2,400 instead of 1,600 points--800 each on mathematics, critical reading and a new writing section.
"I expect it'll take everybody several years to get completely used to the new range and the meaning of a particular score," said Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions. "My guess is that for a while most people will look at the critical reading and math sections and compare them to the older version of the SATs. It'll take a while to integrate the new system into our thinking, but it'll happen."
Barbara Polk, senior associate director of undergraduate admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, echoed Guttentag's sentiment. She noted that the addition of a writing section, which will include multiple-choice questions on grammar and usage and a student-written essay, will require an adjustment period for admissions officers.
"I don't think any colleges know yet how the writing sample will change their individual admissions processes," she said. "First, we'll have to see the test and the results and run some validity tests. It'll take a couple of cycles before there are any changes to the application process based on the new section."
College Board officials have touted the new SAT I as a more accurate gauge for college admissions officers, holding that the addition of a writing section recognizes writing as a core skill in college and assesses students' ability to write on demand.
Although many college officials applaud the acknowledgment that writing is an important skill, some also have reservations about the accuracy of a timed writing test.
"On the one hand, we'll have a student's raw writing, unpolished by a teacher or parent or anyone else," Polk said. "On the other hand, the majority of students are now taught to write from outlines to drafts to redrafts. Their best work is done in this manner. It's going to take some time to see how we can use the writing score and what role it can play in the admissions process."
Guttentag said he does not anticipate that the addition of a writing section will dramatically change the role of the SAT I in the admissions process. Currently, Duke considers a student's score on the SAT I as roughly one-sixth of the candidate's overall evaluation.
"The SAT has always had some value in general, and a new section isn't going to change that," Guttentag said. "The new section will add another dimension to what we learn from SAT scores, but it's not going to radically change the meaning or value of the test."
Aside from aiding college admissions officers, the new SAT I is meant to help students by making them better writers as a result of preparing for the exam and maintaining the importance of writing throughout a student's high school education.
"In general, these kinds of tests do dictate curricula," said Tom Oppewal, assistant dean and director of teacher education at UNC's School of Education. He added, however, that he does not yet know enough about the new SAT to determine how and if high schools will change their curricula to teach to the test.
Guttentag said he has seen little to suggest that changes to the SAT I were made with the goal of creating a national curriculum, but that the changes could have nationwide benefits nonetheless.
"Writing is a critical skill for everyone, and in particular for students going to college," he said. "If the new test encourages more attention to writing in high schools overall, I think that's a good thing. Obviously there will be people who, as always, will be trying to teach to the test, but if this is the direction it's taking us, then overall it's a positive step."
Oppewal noted that, even if the new SAT I succeeded in creating more of a national curriculum, it would not ensure that all students were prepared for the next steps in their education.
"Higher education is really not all the same, and the kinds of programs students are prepared for differ greatly as well," he said.
"Traditional liberal arts schools attempt to educate people very broadly and equip people with skills that transfer across disciplines, but there may be some schools for which different sets of skills are required."
Other major changes to the SAT I will include the elimination of analogies and addition of short reading passages to the critical reading section and the elimination of quantitative comparisons and addition of new content from third-year college preparatory math in the mathematics section.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.