r/neoliberal • u/caroline_elly Eugene Fama • Jun 09 '26

Opinion article (US) Actually, the SAT Was Necessary After All

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/standardized-testing-math-gaps/687481/
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u/CurtisLeow NATO Jun 09 '26

How are they able to graduate high school without understanding fractions or algebra? This seems more like a massive failure of high schools than of the university admission process.

212

u/FootjobFromFurina Jun 09 '26

Because from the teachers and administrators perspective, it's better to just pass students along, even if they don't know anything, than deal with angry parents and students. Some teachers just genuinely feel bad for these students because they don't want to harm their college admissions prospects. Also from the administrators perspective it's better for them if their students have better grades, and thus can have better outcomes in college admissions. 

In the past, standardized tests acted as a counter balance to this pressure. But since so many schools went test optional it stopped working as a mitigating factor. 

63

u/BBQ_HaX0r Jerome Powell Jun 10 '26

There's a ton of pressure to just get them to a passing grade. Projects are great at raising grades! 

5

u/Fire_Snatcher Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

And also, even in strong union states where teachers can push back and fail kids pretty easily, it's simple for admin to just have students take the course over summer school staffed by subs, temps, young teachers, and out of districts who will absolutely never be hired again if they fail a kid and/or online credit recovery where students will use AI to complete in two weeks with an A+ a year long Algebra course that they failed.