Balance (1965 - 1990)
Truth in Testing
Consumer advocacy groups demanded that testing agencies disclose test questions, the answers given by the test takers, and the correct answers to the candidates taking entrance exams. College Board officials argued that doing so would raise the cost of test construction and would make comparing test scores across years impossible since no two tests would be the same.
Over 12 state legislatures and the U.S. Congress debated passing disclosure laws. The state of New York passed legislation providing for disclosure of test items. Truth-in-testing legislation played upon people's fears that testing agencies were dishonest and not to be trusted. The College Board did provide this option to test takers beginning in 1981.
The relationship between the College Board and the Educational Testing Service, and the College Board's status as a non-profit organization came under scrutiny by many, including consumer advocate Ralph Nader. In 1980, the Nader-sponsored report The Reign of ETS: The Corporation that Makes Up Minds investigated ETS.
The College Board tried publicly to state "The True Relationship between the College Board and ETS" in its 1983 College Board Review article of that title. However, concerns about the relationship between the College Board and ETS continue today.
By the early 1980s, the College Board embarked on a public relations campaign that tried to situate the SAT in a diverse society. The College Board did this through a series of published pamphlets in 1980 entitled Commentaries on Testing. Many contributions to this series were published in the College Board Review. Others were adaptations of speeches given by educators.
- Testing and Schooling examined the relationship between tests and schools.
- The Pendulum and the Pit examined society's and education's perennially changing outlook on testing and issues of merit.
- Testing the Tests was adapted from a speech by George Hanford to the Middle States Regional Assembly in 1980. Hanford argued for the usefulness of the SAT and that the testing and admission process had become steadily open since the 1950s. This was part of Hanford's broader public relations campaign on behalf of the SAT.
- The Case for Excellence by Richard W. Lyman argued that there is a place for intellectual merit in American society and that standardized tests, standards for academic excellence, and special programs and institutions (including gifted programs and private schools) do not violate the principles of democracy and merit.
- The Nonsense of Attacking Education Tests by Albert Shanker directly addressed the issues of test discrimination and truth-in-testing legislation. Shanker called for the standardized testing of teachers to certify their admission into the classroom.
- Two Cheers by Fred A. Hargadon was an address to the Middle States Regional Assembly in 1980. Like many of the other pamphlets, Two Cheers criticized the critics, especially Ralph Nader, questioning on whose behalf public interest groups like Nader's are speaking, where their funding comes from, who holds them accountable, and on what basis do they claim authority.
