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The SAT Framework
Past
Prestige in higher education is nothing new. Before the internet, before college rankings, before guidebooks, and even before standardized admission tests, the aristocracy sent their children to the colleges and universities perceived to be "the best." Few others penetrated the hallowed walls. In 1928, the University of Chicago (IL) first introduced the notion of a college or university deliberately enhancing prestige, not through historical, social or community ties, or the success of graduates, but through the rejection of applicants, selectivity and the acquisition of "higher quality" students. Only in the latter half of the 20th century did the system shift towards exclusivity and discrimination more on ability than social status.
The advent of the modern form of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), brought to bear by the combination of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Harvard's former president James Bryant Conant (Lemann 1999), was designed to promote the recognition of talent and intellect, wherever they may be found. Their aim was to provide greater educational access for academically gifted and accomplished students, requiring students at elite institutions to prove their worthiness by performance rather than merely by pedigree. Within a few short years, it began to clarify the distinction between social and intellectual elite.
During the 1950s, use of the SAT grew rapidly. When the University of California adopted the exam in 1968, its expansion across the nation was solidified. In 1990, from a desire to move away from the idea that the test measures innate ability, its intent mid-century, the SAT changed its acronym to the Scholastic Assessment Test. This move marked a formal break from its early 1920s precursors that were forms of IQ tests. Then, faced with challenges to the claim that it truly measured achievement, in 1994 it removed the acronym entirely, keeping only the initials SAT.
Present
In its current incarnation, the SAT1 is utilized in some capacity by nearly every selective institution in the country as a measure of a student's ability, Along with high school grades, rigor of high school curriculum, essays, recommendations, and other factors, selective institutions overlay standardized test scores to put local and individual information into a broader context, all the while assuring an anxious public that test scores are...