The College Board's New 'Adversity Score' Is A JokeTownhall, May 19, 2019, Paul Jacob
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“The College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT,†The Wall Street Journal reported last week, “to try to capture their social and economic background, jumping into the debate raging over race and class in college admissions.â€
This year, 50 colleges and universities, including Yale, used these new SAT measures; next year, 150 more will do so. After that, Katy bar the college door.
Students are assessed on 15 not-fully-disclosed factors, things such as the level of crime and poverty in one’s high school and neighborhood, “the educational level of the parents,†and “family stability.â€
“An adversity score of 50 is average,†notes the Journal. “Anything above it designates hardship, below it privilege.â€
One problem, however, is that, as the song goes, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.†Which, in this case, means the SAT will measure one’s school and neighborhood and home on crime and wealth, but it cannot look at an aspiring young person’s actual personal experience.
It will not judge the content of one’s character, but the character of one’s community. The more beleaguered the household, school and neighborhood in which you reside, using purportedly objective standards, the better for you — at least, in getting into the best universities.
This being a utopian and technocratic system, not a democratic-spirited or market service, students and their parents will not be permitted to know their score. Only the College Board and college admission folks will possess the formula that divines whether or not your student “built that†academic record.
More:
https://townhall.com/columnists/pauljacob/2019/05/19/the-college-boards-new-adversity-score-is-a-joke-n2546550
