ABSTRACT
Admissions literature focuses upon what is most beneficial to postsecondary education without contemplating the impact of admissions tests upon secondary schools, K–12 students, and teachers. Admissions tests send powerful and clear signals to all K–12 groups about what knowledge is most worth knowing and how it should be taught. There is often no sense of a tradeoff between more data for higher education admissions and the required secondary teaching and testing time. Should secondary students spend time cramming for SAT I analogies, if these are not part of the K–12 curriculum or state education standards? The heavy weight that University of California gives to SAT II writing will encourage more high school composition. However, SAT II writing prompts feature a personal or reflective essay, while many high school exams focus upon analysis, reporting, and argument. As UC president Richard Atkinson correctly states in his paper, “One of the clear lessons of U.S. history is that colleges and universities, through their admissions requirements, strongly influence what is taught in the K–12 schools.”
