Surprise! They Made the SAT "Less Demanding" to Hide the Fact That the Establisment Has Given Up Teaching Children to Read
Plus: FAA Orders National Grounding of All Flights

Julia Cassidy for The College Fix:

SAT reading section is "less demanding" than in past decades, study finds

Changes could be attempts to increase equity, education expert says

We're dumbing educational standards down to "increase equity"? Well knock me over with a feather.

Why even bother? Just give them crap degrees. They're just going to use AI to write their papers anyway.

A recent study funded by Thomas Aquinas College is making waves after it revealed major changes to one of the nation's most well-known standardized tests.

Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Education Policy released a study comparing older versions of the SAT with a current practice test. Although a change in difficulty cannot be established, researchers found substantial differences in the reading section that, across the examined dimensions, "point to the test becoming less demanding."

Questions now loom over whether expectations for college preparedness have declined, and whether the changes signal a deeper problem affecting the school system.

I don't think questions loom. I think obvious conclusions loom.

Through a comparative analysis of SAT forms from 1980, 1987, and a 2026 College Board practice test, researchers discovered substantial adjustments to the tests' reading section that transitioned away from longer, more traditional readings.

The changes include significantly shorter passages, an 83 percent drop in vocabulary questions that require independent word knowledge, the near-total replacement of argumentative and persuasive texts with expository ones, and readings whose meaning can be grasped through context rather than assumed prior knowledge.

David Steiner, executive director of Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, told The College Fix that the test has indeed changed, but that the "report does not say that the test got easier."

You've shortened the passages because kids can't even read full magazine articles, let alone books. And by the way, I used to teach the SAT. A shorter passage means there's less text to scan through to find answers.

Steiner posited that the changes could be attempts to increase equity. "We know that children of more privileged backgrounds bring more background knowledge to a test on average, so by dialing back the amount of background knowledge required, you're enabling a more level playing field," he said.

Regarding the implications, Steiner told The Fix that different universities have different expectations, which can affect how they interpret these changes and weigh SAT scores.

He added that the test necessarily "moves in tandem with the rest of the education system," meaning it reflects trends such as grade inflation and reading declines that we see in schools.

And speaking of "moving in tandem with the education system:" everyone wants an A. And the dum-dums want all distinctions between "A" work and "B" work and "F" non-work eliminated.

Presto! Everyone is equal! Everyone gets a Participation A!

(Even if they don't actually participate.)

Joanne Jacobs:

Parents are lawyering up to challenge a bad grade -- or a teacher's unflattering comment -- on their child's report card, reports Zusha Elinson in the Wall Street Journal.

In affluent Palo Alto, my daughter's old district, one mother is suing because her third-grader's report card said he needs to work on "cooperating with others."

A Palo Alto father filed suit after AI-detection software flagged his 10th-grade son's essay on The Crucible as "76% AI," writes Elinson. The teacher "gave him a D on the retake, bringing his final grade down to a C."

Takashi Kato, a Silicon Valley CEO, submitted a 1,162-page packet showing the sophomore's "drafting and revision process," and claimed detection software can be biased against non-native English writers. "He offered to accept a B to resolve the dispute," writes Elinson. He dropped the suit in September. The district says there was no settlement.

Many Silicon Valley parents are competitive overachievers who want their children to get into very selective universities. They think that takes a perfect report card. And they all have lawyers.

Below: A report on the grounding. "A national ground stop due to extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety."

Supposedly this has nothing to do with a "nefarious attack." It's due to a "telecommunications outage." Though DHS Secretary Mullin says we're not sure what caused it yet. It could turn out to be a cyberattack.

But for the moment, there's no evidence that it is due to an attack.

Plus: FAA Orders National Grounding of All Flights&bodytext=Julia Cassidy for The College Fix: SAT reading section is "less demanding" than in past decades, study finds Changes could be attempts to increase equity, education expert says We're dumbing educational standards down to "increase equity"? Well knock me over...&topic=world_news"> posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:20 PM

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