Word: porter
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...more obscure debate over the validity of the SAT as a predictor of academic success, Slack and Porter argue that research has been consistently misinterpreted by ETS. The testers, on the other hand, charge their critics with intentionally using improper statistical methods in re-analyzing existing data. The bottom line is that ETS and the College Board contend that using the SAT "improves" prediction by 27 per cent over a system in which high school grades are used alone; Slack and Porter set the factor at "an insignificant 1 to 4 per cent...
...Finally, there is disagreement over how ETS describes what the SAT actually tests. Again, Slack and Porter say that ETS implies that it is measuring innate and unchanging abilities, even if its more recent literature places a heavy emphasis on skills developed during schooling. Mary Churchill, an ETS spokesman, responds that almost every aspect of the voluminous information packet received by students emphasizes that the SAT is not an intelligence test, but rather a measure of "learned academic skills...
This is where Slack and Porter believe they will eventually change minds. "Even if you can't follow the statistics, there is clear evidence that ETS, a monopolistic company, has lied about its product," Slack says. Once admissions officers begin to doubt ETS's word, "it will open up all of the other questions about what 'aptitude' means and about whether we want to weight education so much toward a test that involves little more than tricky math and little-used vocabulary," he continues. An example...
Until 1978, ETS did not acknowledge or refer to two studies conducted in 1961 and 1965 that attributed gains of 40 to 85 points to special test preparation. ETS's Jackson says in his formal written response to the Slack-Porter Educational Review article that the studies "examined score gains by students involved in lengthy educational programs that go well beyond what is ordinarily described by the term 'coaching.'" But in reviewing the mountain of research conducted on the issue, Slack and Porter found that one of the programs analyzed was only 17 minutes longer than those Jackson calls "short...
...counters that the studies in question didn't use proper control groups. Slack and Porter argue that they compensated for this in their analysis, adding that ETS itself quotes studies lacking concurrent controls when the findings suit its ends. Not so, responds Cameron, who accuses his critics of allowing "social aims" to shape their research and makes passing reference to the fact that Slack was a classmate of Ralph Nadar's at Princeton in the early 1950s, "and maybe that means something...