Word: slack
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...brief, here are the arguments Slack and Porter make, along with responses from ETS and the College Board...
...Harvard-affiliated doctors accuse the test makers of implying in technical publications and literature for students that test preparation has less of an impact on scores than studies have shown. Moreover, Slack and Porter argue, ETS has only recently begun to distinguish between short-term "coaching," which it calls ineffective, and long-term "intensive training," which it now concedes can raise scores. Before making this distinction, Slack and Porter say, ETS misled students into thinking that even a school year's worth of special preparation would not affect math or verbal aptitude as measured by the SAT. Cameron...
...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...