The ACT Adds an Essay

SUMMARY:The second most popular college entrance exam, the ACT announced that it will add an optional essay to the test, taken by 1.1 million students every year. In an attempt to be as fair as possible the ACT said that it is working to identify topics of general interest and relevance to all teenagers in America, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion. "The bottom line is, whatever we wind up with needs to be a prompt that is clear to all students, fair to all students and gives each student a chance to show what they've learned in school," said the ACT's vice president of development. The SAT also announced in 2002 that it would add an essay for the 2005 tests.

REFLECTION: Will the addition of an essay close the gap that exists between the scores of white males and minorities or is this another way to give white males an advantage?

ANSWER: I think that this is a step in the right direction, especially if the ACT is sincere about its efforts to make the essay as accessible to all American teens. Despite this I think that the gap will not be closed and it could even be widened because the ACT is an assessment of what students learn in the class and girls are at a distinct disadvantage in that department. As noted in Failing at Fairness girls get less attention, take less challenging classes in math and science, and their scores on the SAT II's are generally lower. The encouraging statistic is that girls score higher on literature and English, which are more essay based. The only way to make tests like the ACT and SAT fair is to rewrite them completely.

Submitted by: Andrew Lemerise, American University
Source:Leading Exam-maker Put to the Test, Cnn.com Tuesday, June 24, 2003,http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/06/24/act.essay.ap/index.html