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American Morning

SAT's Quite Important, But Also Quite Controversial

Aired August 28, 2001 - 11:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The results of the 2001 SATs came out this morning. The standardized tests are used by many colleges and universities to help decide their admission, as you may know, or should know by now. So the tests are quite important, but they're also controversial.

Our Jeanne Meserve is standing by live at George Washington University, and she's got more on the scores. for us -- Jeanne.

Good morning, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Leon and Daryn. There's probably no set of numbers that has more impact on a young person's life than their SAT scores. They can determine whether they get into the college of their choice or they do not. This past year, 1.3 million college -- excuse me, high school seniors took the test. More than a third of them were minorities. But in many cases, minorities students continue to lag behind their white counterparts.

Joining me here now is Gaston Caperton, former governor of the state of West Virginia, and now president of the College Board. Thank you for joining us.

GASTON CAPERTON, PRESIDENT, COLLEGE BOARD: Great to be with us.

MESERVE: Why do we continue it see this disparity in the test scores?

CAPERTON: Well, it isn't the kids, and it's not the test, because all of the tests say basically the same thing. And that is, disparity. The difference is that kids are not getting an equal opportunity for an education.

MESERVE: Well, what do you mean?

CAPERTON: Well, some of the recent statistics show, for instance, that the students that are low-income students are getting the teachers that are less prepared to teach. The student -- the teachers that don't have the course work in the major that they're teaching. And the students are not just getting that opportunity that they need in order to have an exactly footing. I say, it's not the test, and it's not the kids; it's this unequal education system.

MESERVE: Does it also have something to do with the family background and the educational level of the parents?

CAPERTON: That can be part of it, but certainly, people can overcome that, but they can't overcome that if they go to a school in which kids are not given. You know, the kids that come -- that go into an inner-city school need the best teachers. They need the very best teachers. They need the very best programs and we're not creating that kind of atmosphere, those students.

MESERVE: You have noted an increase in the great point average of the kids taking the test, and yet, the test scores only edged up marginally. What does that tell you about high school education?

CAPERTON: First of all, it's good news. In about the '68, the scores were going down. Now the scores are going up. That's very good news. The problem is, that we have a lot of diversity of the kids that are going. We have a lot of people that are going for the third, going for their first time in -- first of their family to go. But the real problem is that we have kids that are getting left behind.

MESERVE: Let me ask you about the critics, who say this isn't really a good way to gauge a kid's performance or a predictor of how they will do in college, that the SAT should not be counted, as they are, in college admissions. Your response to this?

CAPERTON: Well, it's a wonderful predictor. It's a very good test. It's not a biased test. It's a very fair test. And when you put it together with grades, it has become a real good predictor. And when you have students that come all over the country, here we are in the campus, and I bet that these kids come from every place in the world, from every state, and yet, when what does an a mean from Alabama and Washington D.C.? You don't know that. So have to have some kind of objective criteria about what you look at students, other than looking at their grades.

MESERVE: And we have to leave it there. Gaston Caperton, thank you for joining us for that look at the SATs.

So, Leon, this is what I want to know: Was it an accurate predictor of how you did in college?

HARRIS: It was in my case. In may case, it actually was.

MESERVE: Oh, good.

HARRIS: Yes, lucky, I guess, I don't know.

Thanks, Jeanne.

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