Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion ACT Compass test; interesting

I agree completely.


Here is where I disagree, but only because these kids wouldn't be going BACK to reality. For most, the Accuplacer/Compass tests are their FIRST forays into the reality of what is required to succeed in college.

Remember, the message kids get in the US is everyone must go to college. Actually, no, it's more like Everyone must go to college lest ye die!!!!! This message is thrown at students from the time they start kindergarten. The schools are increasingly providing substandard teachers and curricula (poor textbooks, watered-down material, over-reliance on multiple choice high-stakes testing, etc. etc.). Plus, almost everyone here has experienced, they're generally reticent at best to admit that some kids are smarter than other kids. So we end up with many these kids getting As and Bs in their high school classes. They can't possibly know that what they're being taught falls so far short of the line, because they've never seen what's on the other side of that line. IMO, they are quite reasonably expecting that they can succeed in college. It's the adults who are to blame for this mess, not the kids.

I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for kids today. They're being spoonfed lies, and IMO, one of the lies is the SAT/ACT testing process. An honest test set at the level of the Accuplacer or the Compass would be a cold, hard required dose of reality, well before they finish high school. This is very different from learning about their skill deficiencies during orientation week, from signing up for a specialized subject test that's not required for admission, or from running a statistical analysis (what's that, anyway? they'll think) of your PSAT score.