True to pattern though, he does become a dictator himself after gaining power. On earth as it is in Heaven - and Hell?

As far as SATs are concerned, I think the movement going on right now that makes SATs more irrelevant is the realization that the majority of students these days don’t go (and don’t need to go) to a four year university at all. At least, they don’t need to go right out of high school. There’s a major movement to getting college credit in alternative ways after one is already in the workforce and long out of high school. People that “go back” don’t have to take SATs to get placed at all…

The Forbes article, if the argument is valid, pointed to the irrelevancy of knowing many of the “building blocks.” The alleged fact that academic research rarely yields successes, and that successful research discoveries come more often from “creative” insights from those who see beyond the rules and established body of knowledge in whatever discipline - that’s what interested me.

Carolyn, I read your post a few days ago, and it’s depressing news for America.

And Diane, I sort of broke it down in a reply to a student’s post that what disturbs me is the “facts and analysis today, creativity always tomorrow” approach in most of our classrooms and assessments.

Speaking of which: time to grade

How to assess and what to assess are very different questions. The “four slide” requirement of the Chicago Graduate School of Business
http://tinyurl.com/yr2g8f
would be one method of gauging creative thinking skills but would not necessary predict an applicant’s ability to be successful in courses the required for a degree.

To use an imperfect “Paradise Lost” analogy: Adam and Eve might have been able to pass a standardized test, but Satan would shine in an alternative creative assessment!

Some schools in the California system have pushed away from the SAT as a college entry exam, and that has put some pressure on….but…

then again, as I posted the other day, a consortium of large American colleges has decide to do some self-reporting of student success, and one of the measures they will be using is a test designed by the SAT folks. (or a few other ones, like ACT).

So, that doesn’t portent well for it “fading” away.

Frankly, one thing I’ve found interesting for our students–many colleges now only accept scores for a certain number of AP tests. So even when students cram and do well on them for two years of high school, some colleges only accept one or two, or only ones with scores of 5.

So….there seems to be this whole misconception about it that is fostered by the program itself?

I’m sure students who have taken AP classes perform better in college or are somewhat more prepared from a content standpoint, but if the focus is just on the college credits, that will depend ENTIRELY on what college they choose to attend.