The University of Delaware rendered a verdict on Common Core: We don’t care! As Delaware First State reported on Friday could happen and the The News Journal reported last night, the University of Delaware is now making SAT scores optional on applications. In other words, they don’t care what your SAT score was high school students of Delaware! What does this have to do with the Smarter Balanced Assessment? Last May, the Delaware Department of Education made a big showing about the College Board redesigning the SAT to align with Common Core standards. At the same time, high school juniors were the largest group of students opted out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment. At the end of 2015, Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky made his big announcement about getting rid of Smarter Balanced for high school juniors in lieu of the SAT. And now the largest university in Delaware has said the test is now optional.
Members of the committee that came up with the idea say research at other universities – and their own research into UD students – suggests that high school grade point averages are a better predictor of college success than the SAT.
This follows 815 other colleges and universities around the country who already did the same. The message is loud and clear: our higher education institutes in America do not believe Common Core and the SAT are what makes a student “college-ready”. Of course the article doesn’t come right out and say this, but for University of Delaware to do this now, right before the new alignment comes out? Governor Markell’s education agenda failed. There are no other words to accurately describe what the University of Delaware declared with this. When I read the words “GPA” in the News Journal article my heart leaped! These are the words I have wanted to hear for years! Nobody talks about actual grades students are getting anymore. All the big decisions made rotate around the state assessment.
The Delaware 148th General Assembly needs to have someone bring legislation forward to ban the Smarter Balanced Assessment in Delaware. We can no longer sit idly by and pretend this test has been anything but a colossal failure. I believe we can now expect parents to opt their teenagers out of the SAT. Really, what is the point? Yes, the test cost money. Do we continue to spend millions of dollars on waste (I know, this is Delaware)? I know this has been on the minds of many legislators in Dover but no one has crossed the Rubicon to make it happen. I can say this, anyone envisioning a future role of higher public office could almost guarantee success by sponsoring something like this today.
While we are already transitioning to the Every Student Succeeds Act, now is the best time to reevaluate education in Delaware. This means getting rid of Common Core, high-stakes assessments, how we evaluate our teachers, funding, and how to best serve all students in the state. There are already several initiatives going on, but we need something bigger. We need to bring ALL the existing groups and gets tons of parents, teachers, and even students in on this. We need an education summit like no other. Before we were knee-deep in the current wave of education reform we did this twice: in 2001 and 2005. We need to look at everything: special education, bullying, district alignment, everything! We are at a pivotal crossroads with education, and there is a ton of room for error. Let’s bring everyone together and make something that is good and lasting for our kids.
The Season Of Myths 
You realize that the University of Delaware making the SAT optional has nothing to do with Common Core right? There is a book called, “How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success” that was published last year that addresses why colleges are no longer utilizing the SAT scores. By the way, it was an excellent read for anyone raising kids these day.s
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From the New York Times book review: But even as “How to Raise an Adult” joins others in the same vein — from “The Overparenting Epidemic” to “You Are Not Special” to “All Joy and No Fun” — this emphasis on giving kids a little more space hasn’t seemed to have had much effect on the premature apprehension of the schoolyard: the endless, nervous chatter about the Common Core, the uneasy comparing of report cards and standardized test scores, the tireless griping about the never-ending hassles of homework, soccer season, piano lessons, art classes, dance classes and Kumon tutoring. If everyone agrees that overscheduling and multiple hours of homework a night are the enemy, shouldn’t more parents be stepping back and relaxing a little, thereby showing, by example, how to live in a nonsensically competitive world and still be happy?
Lythcott-Haims sees this inability to disengage as a side effect of the prevailing fantasy among parents that the “right” college education will secure a child’s comfy seat in the upper-middle-class tax bracket. Parents are so laser-focused on how to ensure success against a backdrop of an increasingly insecure global economy that they’re willing to trade in the joys and self-guided discoveries of a rich childhood for some promise of security in the far-off future. But it’s absurd for parents to allow this illusion that success in life depends on admission to one of a handful of elite colleges to guide their behavior from the time their kids are in preschool forward, Lythcott-Haims asserts. A 1999 study by Stacy Berg Dale and Alan Krueger suggests that graduates of a hundred or so “moderately selective” schools “had on average the same income 20 years later as graduates of the elite colleges.” While schools may be more competitive than they were 36 years ago, when the subjects of the study were in college, this statistic (which applied to graduates of “moderately selective” schools who had also gained admission to elite schools) should at least cast a shadow of doubt on parents’ extreme fixation on top-tier colleges. There are also several alternatives to the U.S. News and World Report rankings that could shift common thinking about what constitutes an “elite” education. The “Fiske Guide to Colleges” evaluates schools based on “the quality of the experience and their price tag,” while The Alumni Factor ranks schools based on intellectual development, average income of graduates and whether alumni would choose the college again, among other factors.
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I’ll raise my kid as I see fit, thank you very much. Not sure why you are still promoting this failing agenda. The education reform you just love is dying a long death, faster by the day. Let it go Kristy. The kool-aid drinkers lost!
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I wasn’t promoting it, just trying to make other readers aware that the reason the University of Delaware is making the SAT optional is for othe reasons other than your complete and utter hatred of Common Core.
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Kristy, the SAT was aligned to Common Core effective NOW, and U of Del makes it optional NOW. Read between the lines…
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Seriously Kevin, your bias is showing. Do a little more research about. Colleges around the country are making the SAT optional for far better reasons than the Common Core. I don’t need to read between the lines….I researched it myself.
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I didn’t say it was the only reason, but the timing for University of Delaware, after being under Markell’s thumb the past seven years, is saying enough is enough. If you don’t think this is tied to the Common Core-aligned SAT, think again Kristy. Your bias for all things education reform is showing…
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It’s not a bias for education reform, as much as it is trying to get you to see that not everything is tied to Common Core. This is one of those things. They are doing this because the research shows that SAT scores (prior to Common Core) are not the best indicator of success. They are still going to use the high school grade point average, which will still be aligned with Common Core. But then again, you don’t appreciate any comments that don’t agree with your own.
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That isn’t true Kristy, and I strongly object to that opinion. Wait, I did it again! 😉 But seriously, look at the timing on this ONE situation. I don’t care, for the sake of argument, what other colleges are doing. I’m talking about what THIS university did as the SAT is coming out with their Common Core realigned SAT. We can dance around the whys all day. I know everything isn’t tied to common core, but everything IS tied to the agendas around it in elementary and secondary education. Common Core is the vessel…
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FYI, all UD students will still be required to take the SAT and submit scores to be enrolled. It’s just optional for acceptance.
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