For most students seeking a post-secondary education in the United States, taking the SAT is an almost unavoidable rite of passage. However, for some, such as Mark Breimhorst, the SAT dose not represent a routine scholastic evaluation but rather a means of academic discrimination.
As a result of a 1999 lawsuit filed by Breimhorst against the Educational Testing Service, the ETS-affiliated College Board — which owns and administers the SAT — announced in July that, by September 2003, it would abandon the standard practice of "flagging" the results of disabled students who write the test under special circumstances.
Breimhorst, who was granted extra time to write the College Board's GMAT test because he has no hands, alleged that the flagging of his results was in direct violation of federal disability laws.
Every year, however, nearly 2 percent of the 1.3 million high school students who take the SAT do so with special accommodations related to physical or mental difficulties.
While the College Board's decision has been openly lauded by advocates for the disabled community, the seemingly altruistic agenda has not been immune to criticism. In fact, many in the academic community are concerned that the new non-flagging policy will do more harm than good.
From an admissions standpoint, for example, university officials will soon be unable to distinguish between students who took the SAT normally and those who wrote it under non-standard conditions.
University Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon said he is particularly concerned about the potential for certain students to dishonestly seek special accommodations.
"Clearly, there are legitimate reasons for some students to be provided with more time, or other special arrangements, when taking the test," Hargadon said in an e-mail. "However, I have little doubt that there will now be more students without legitimate reasons seeking some sort of documentation from doctors or psychologists that, for example, their simple inability to add and subtract is really a disability for which an appropriate medical term can be found."
Despite such vocal opposition from some university officials, the College Board has consistently maintained that a non-flagging policy is an important way to accommodate a growing number of disabled students who feel that the practice puts them at an unfair disadvantage.
In addition, the College Board has recently publicized research indicating that students who are allowed extra time to complete the SAT demonstrate only modest increases in score in comparison to normal test-takers.
"We felt that the needs of the disabled community outweighed all other considerations," said Chiara Coletti, a College Board spokeswoman.
One noted supporter of the change is Richard Atkinson who, as president of the University of California, recently proposed not only that all UC campuses discontinue the use of the SAT as an admission prerequisite, but also argued that the test is in fact an inaccurate method for determining academic ability.
Nonetheless, both those who support the College Board's decision and those who oppose it still appear to share a universal concern, that a non-flagging policy may encourage non-deserving students to request the same privileges as the legitimately disabled.
"I think that knowing that certain scores would be flagged provided an incentive to students and their high schools to be vigilant about making sure that only those students with legitimate, documented reasons for being accorded such accommodations were provided them," Hargadon said.
Indeed, a recent California study indicated that the practice of granting non-standard test accommodations has already been subject to widespread abuse.
"A study done a year or two ago showed that those who secured permission for 'non-standardized' SAT testing were disproportionately white and from affluent communities and schools," Hargadon said.
Without knowing which test results are attributed to justifiably disabled students, admission officials will be unable to research the nature of the special-needs documentation or determine whether the student has received relaxed test-taking accommodations in the past.
Still, Hargadon insists that admission practices at the University will not be affected by the College Board's decision, but that careful vigilance is nonetheless essential.
"There really aren't any changes to be made in our admissions process as a result of the decision to drop the flagging of scores," he said.
"We will continue to be as alert as ever to whether all pieces of an application appear to us to fit together."
The College Board also approved broad changes to the test itself, discontinuing the analogies section, toughening math requirements and adding a writing portion.
These changes were prompted by much criticism over the years that the SAT is culturally biased and fails to accurately assess innate ability.
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