In Defense of the SAT
Perspectives Essay
by Booker Peek
Professor of African American Studies

A university president recently called for the abolition of the SAT as an instrument in helping admissions officers choose whom to admit to their colleges and universities. For many years, others too have advocated the abolition of this test. 
I am in favor of the continued use of the SAT as one of several measures of determining who gets into which college. The value of considering students’ high school grades, the kinds of courses they took, the quality of their high schools, their extra-curricular activities, letters of recommendation, written essays, interviews, their experiences outside school, jobs, volunteer services, general talents, etc., along with their SAT scores, is compelling. 

All of the preceding information, including that provided by the SAT, should be examined meticulously by admissions officers as they make decisions about whom to admit and whom to reject. I readily concede that there may be some colleges that assign undue importance to students’ SAT scores. That misuse should be abolished, not the SAT. 
Most blacks perform worse on the SAT than do most of their white counterparts. But abolishing the test would not miraculously solve this problem. Blacks do worse on the SAT because during the preceding seventeen years they receive a far worse education than whites. The test just confirms what we already know, and it might give us some rough idea just how huge the gap is between the two groups. 
The SAT is not the cause of the discrepancy in academic performance between blacks and whites, any more than a blood test and EKGs are responsible for diabetes and heart attacks respectively. Abolishing blood and EKG tests would do nothing to reduce diseases, and abolishing the SAT would do nothing to improve the academic health of America’s students. 
Little good ever comes from our burying our heads in the sand and refusing to confront problems head-on. Surely tests must be valid, reliable, etc. to be of any use. If they are, we must use the results to help us parent and teach our children better. If they are not, we have to improve them, not abolish them. 
I do not believe that the abolition of the SAT would increase the number of blacks enrolled in college. It might even decrease the number. However tough the SAT is, it is far more objective than one admissions officer listening to a black student speak. The officer may be biased against the student in general, biased against the sound of his/her voice, biased against the things the applicant talks about, biased against his/her dress, etc.
And it would be nearly impossible to ever fathom just why the officer gave him/her a low rating. When a student gets a bad grade on the SAT, it is usually because he/she did not know the meaning of, say, “abundant” or did not know how many inches are in a foot and a half. Knowing this, the student can work harder to do better the next time. 
I would never mention the word SAT to children until they are in high school. Before then, however, I would exhort all parents and teachers to make certain that the children acquired a deep love for reading all kinds of books, that they spent most of their lives with books and not with the TV sets on, that they wrote extensively, that they learned to analyze, critique, and apply information intelligently, that they did their best to do “A” work in school, etc. 
Perhaps, most importantly, and for black children especially, I would exhort everyone not to let children think that we quake in our boots in fear of the dreaded SAT or any other test. The real test is that offered by life itself. If we prepare children for that test, they will have no trouble excelling on the SAT. 
But so long as we emit signals that the SAT is such a formidable test and all the while do very little to prepare children for the problems they will confront in life, we do them a grave disservice. The SAT is not the problem: instead, it is the shamefully poor quality of education we offer to all our children, but especially that offered to many black children.