Affirmative Action and the SAT

By Charles A. Kiesler

College-admissions tests are once again in the news. In the wake of recent challenges to campus affirmative action policies have come new criticisms of the tests. Where race and ethnicity have been outlawed as factors that can be considered in admissions, many educators and citizens have become alarmed at the specter of dwindling minority enrollments. Understandably, this has prompted a search for quick solutions, and in the case of the University of California, it has led to a call for the elimination of tests such as the SAT as admissions requirements.

While I too am deeply concerned about the impact of abolishing affirmative action policies in college admissions, I do not agree with those who want to throw out admissions tests. My reasons spring from my experience as a chancellor of a state university, as a professor of psychology, and as the chairman of the trustees of the College Board, the association of schools and colleges that sponsors the SAT.

The principal concern of the College Board is the student transition from high school to college, especially access to college. Throughout our history, the "main arrow in our quiver" has been the SAT--a test designed to predict college performance and to provide a means for admissions people to compare prospective students who have the same grades, but who come from widely varying high schools in different parts of the country. The development of the SAT was public-spirited; the intent was to increase access to first-rate higher education. The SAT gives students from less affluent high schools a chance they...