Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Students To Face Newly Designed Sat , 03/07/05
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-dec05/sat_3-07.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is the SAT?

2. Why is it given?

3. What are some criticisms of the SAT? Do you think it is a fair test?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What changes have been made to the SAT?

This year's SAT does not have analogies or quantitative comparisons, but it does have harder algebra II and geometry math questions and a greater stress on critical reading. A maximum score, once 1600, will now be 2400.

But perhaps the most significant change to test is the addition of a writing section with multiple choice questions on grammar and a student-written essay. Students will have 25 minutes to draft a persuasive essay -- without the help of a computer.

2. Why did the College Board decide to change the format of the SAT?

The changes, first announced three years ago, come in response to criticism from college admissions officers and high school guidance counselors.

"I think a lot of colleges are just looking at how much emotional and psychic energy [the SAT is] taking up," Brad MacGowan, a guidance counselor at Newton North High School in suburban Boston, told the Associated Press. "They're saying this should not be driving education."

In 2001 the president of the University of California argued that the SAT was unfair to minority students and not a good predictor of a student's true abilities. Expensive test-prep courses gave rich students an unfair advantage over poor students, he said.

3. What do some critical teachers think of the new writing section?

Critics like Mark Franek, an English teacher and dean of students at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, disagree. The best writing is not created in less than half an hour under extreme pressure, Franek argues in a recent Christian Science Monitor editorial.

"Students would be better served by consistently reading the commentary section of the local newspaper -- and then periodically writing letters to the editor -- than by sitting through the painfully boring lesson plans that these changes to the SAT are likely to inspire," he said.

4. How do students feel about the new writing section, according to the article?

Some students think the new essay adds a subjective grading factor to what used to be a fully standardized and objective test.

"I don't see how someone can judge the way I write and determine my score. ... People judge writing differently," junior Samantha Deffler told New Jersey's Courier News. "I've had different teachers that have judged my writing differently."

But other test takers are excited about the changes in the SAT.

"I'm really bad at taking multiple-choice tests," Katie Hardy, a sophomore, told the Courier News. "So I'm glad they're putting a writing section on it, because I know I'm probably better at writing an essay than guessing on a multiple-choice question."

5. Why do test preparation companies like the changes in the SAT?

Test preparation companies are happy with the changes too.

"The fear and anxiety associated with changes in the SAT are good for our business," Andy Lutz, vice president for program development at the Princeton Review, a leading test-preparation company, told The Washington Post. "It was a boon for our business the last time the SAT changed significantly 10 years ago, and we are seeing an equivalent boost this time around."

Students spend over $310 million a year on test prep classes and materials.

6. Do you have to take the SAT to get into a college or university?

For students who want to avoid the debate over the SAT's predictive quality there are colleges that don't require standardized tests. Bates College, a small liberal arts college in Maine, is one of them.

"When I'm stuck, I go back to the recommendations, to the student's writing, to the interview," admissions dean Wylie Mitchell said. "What do you want? A highly motivated student, or a good tester?"

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Have you taken the SAT yet? What do you think of the new changes to the SAT? Do you think that they are an improvement on the old SAT? Why or why not? If you've taken both, compare and contrast the two versions of the test.

2. Do you agree or disagree with English teacher Mark Franek when he says the following: "Students would be better served by consistently reading the commentary section of the local newspaper -- and then periodically writing letters to the editor -- than by sitting through the painfully boring lesson plans that these changes to the SAT are likely to inspire." Explain your answer using examples of your own writing experiences.

3. Pretend that you are a college or university admissions counselor. How would you pick students to attend your institution? How important would the SAT, or other tests like the ACT, be in making that decision? Explain your answer with examples.

4. Should SAT test takers have to disclose on their scores if they took a test preparation course? Why or why not? Do you think students who take such courses get an unfair advantage over students who cannot take such a course? Why or why not?

Write a 500-800 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.