Penelope Trunk on the big new changes to the SAT:
The SAT is doing away with the essay test, finally acknowledging what free market economy has proven over the last seven years: That the more you pay for SAT tutoring, the higher your score is.
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But now that won't be the case. Because now there will be a new SAT that focuses much more on the common core.
And thus the SAT will make itself irrelevant to the rich kids at private schools because the majority of those schools opted out of the test-centric, standards-obsessed core. And we all know what happens to a test that is irrelevant to the rich kids: You can start ignoring it right now, no matter how rich you are, because it's only a matter of time before the SAT is finished. In fact, NPR points out that the slide to total obsolescence started earlier this year when 800 of 3000 colleges accepting the SAT said it would no longer be required.