For more than seventy-five years, standardized tests have been considered a vital tool for gauging students' readiness for college. However, few people--including students, parents, teachers, and policy makers--understand how tests like the SAT or ACT are used in admissions decisions. Once touted as the best way to compare students from diverse…

"Uneducated Guesses" challenges everything our policymakers thought they knew about education and education reform, from how to close the achievement gap in public schools to admission standards for top universities. In this explosive book, Howard Wainer uses statistical evidence to show why some of the most widely held beliefs in…

We provide evidence of persistent gender effects for students using advanced adaptive technology while learning mathematics. This technology improves each gender's learning and affective predispositions toward mathematics, but specific features in the software help either female or male students. Gender differences were seen in the students' style…

The four college years is the last important developmental period of a young person's life, and what happens then can and often does have substantial consequences. He can be awakened and fired up to develop himself and his talents, he can plod through largely untouched or unenlightened, he can be frustrated and turned off, he can transfer, or he…

Male perpetrated sexual aggression has long been recognized as a serious problem on college campuses. The purpose of this multiple regression correlation study was to assess the relationship between levels of moral development (measured by the Defining Issues Test) and the degree to which first-year college men (N = 161) ascribed to rape…

Are America's schools broken? "Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality" seeks to address misconceptions about America's schools by taking on the credo "what can be measured matters." To the contrary, Dr. Bracey makes a persuasive case that much of what matters cannot be assessed on a multiple choice test. The challenge for…

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Program (ACT) scores are the main determinants of college entrance in the USA. It is widely assumed that these tests are predictive of success both during college and in later life, but such views are incorrect. Another widely-held view, held by many educators, is that the SAT and ACT are…

Criticizes the William Bennett/Emily Feistritzer "Report Card on American Education 1993" for misrepresenting the "crisis" condition of U.S. education. State rankings of SAT scores flatten data and exaggerate differences. Bennett also ignores influence of limited English proficiency, poverty, and percentage of test-takers on…

Unlike Japanese and European schools, U.S. public schools treat music as a nonserious, peripheral "activity" suitable for a few talented students. However, music education is as fundamental to the curriculum as math or reading. One study showed that high-school musicians achieved higher Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. (15 references)…

Regardless of how many times people are told by the Educational Testing Service not to use the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as a gross measure of school productivity, the test continues to be used for that purpose. This article shows how misleading SAT scores and per-student-expenditure correlations are used to justify spending less money on…

Although student achievement in most subjects has not declined over recent decades, there is little room for complacency. This article debunks four myths: there really was no SAT decline; test scores are at all-time highs; the top half of American students are internationally competitive; and the American education crisis is not general but…

School-bashers bemoaning declining SAT scores since 1967 do not consider the greater numbers of students now taking these tests. Some parents believe children are overtested. Teachers generally are well prepared, and administration is not top-heavy. Business is faster, but not necessarily more efficient than education. (MLH)

Richard Rothstein's booklet "What Do We Know About Declining (Or Rising) Student Achievement?" claims that anecdotes about past educational practices are unreliable and difficult to relate to today's schools. Curricula and tests change; so do student populations. There are no solid historical measures, including three well-known…

Three former secretaries of education--William Bennett, Lauro Cavazos, and Terrel Bell--have touted state-level SAT scores as proof that educational financing does not matter. Recently, Brian Powell and Lala Carr Steelman adjusted scores for participation rate and detected a very strong relationship between expenditures and SAT scores. Bigger…

Using research findings and statistics to support a policy argument often leads to misinterpretations and exaggerations of public school performance. Two experts illustrate this point by discussing examples of distorted high school drop-out rates, student performance on standardized tests, and international comparisons of U.S. and Japanese…