Monday, November 03, 2003
SAT your ass down
Hey, look, more dolts! This time it's that good ol' fashioned SAT crap.
I was expecting Regent Moores to shut the hell up, after the reaction he got for reporting on the crappy SAT scores of some admittees (admittedly not a huge deal in itself), but it turns out he has more spine than I gave him credit for. He strikes back with a report on how those students with crappy SAT scores are doing crappier, which actually does matter.
The report “continues to contain misleading data and draws incorrect conclusions about the UC Berkeley freshman admissions process,” UC Berkeley officials responded.
I didn't see enough of this response to make me comfortable. I'd've appreciated more statements about what is misleading and what conclusions are indirect than this blanket statement. So let's go to the arguments:
Moores: "...students who scored poorly on the SATs were twice as likely to drop out..."
Response A: "Low-scoring students left for personal or financial reasons rather than poor academic performance."
Me: Well, that may be true, but it doesn't change a whole lot. Keep in mind the reason why we even measure the number of students dropping out: admitting dropouts is a serious waste of resources. So if people with low SAT scores have a higher chance of dropping out, whatever their reason, we ought to consider it.
Response B: "More than 90 percent returned this semester, compared to 95 percent of the entire 2002 freshman class."
That's why Moores said "twice as likely to drop out." Ten is twice five.
Moores: "students who scored poorly on the SATs... were three times as likely to lack "good academic standing.""
Response: Oops, guess either the Daily Cal decided we didn't want to hear it, or the response felt their blanket, unsupported statement addressed the problem. (note to Daily Cal: Please please please inform us of things. It'd be a really handy thing to read in a newspaper. You know, news.)
Moores: "The low-scoring students on average had a freshman-year GPA half a point lower than the entire class."
Response: Same as above.
Me: Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. I could've sworn that SAT had no correlation with GPA, according to some study. Oh, well.
Conclusions: Not a whole lot without more information. Wait for more "Oh, it's self-evident" arguments on both sides.
. . .
|
. . .
|
