On June 3, Naomi Schaefer Riley addressed the increasingly popular topic of whether college is worth the time and expense in the Washington Post. She gave credit to Peter Thiel and his entrepreneurial fellowships for having awakened people to the possibility of other paths to success.
What I like best is this comment by Riley:
College as a sorting process for talent or a way to babysit 18-year-olds is not very efficient for anyone involved. Would students rather show their SAT scores to companies and then apply for training positions where they can learn the skills they need to be successful? Maybe the companies could throw in some liberal arts courses along the way.
Perhaps we already have the credentialing device that industry needs — the SAT score. (Yes, I admit, hiring an 18-year-old for serious work is not always the best idea, but the Army does it.) It’s an intriguing idea.
A large company that openly uses the SAT to screen job applicants will be sued for "disparate impact", since there are large differences in average scores by race. Civil rights laws need to be changed to that companies can use the SAT and other tests. I would expect an NR commentator to mention this issue when she suggests that employers use the SAT.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAll of the US military branches use the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test to screen applicants. The test has been in use for decades and seems a reliable screening device.
Maybe we need an acceptable alternative to employer tests (which could face legal obstacles) or a college degree. In the IT world, there are a variety of voluntary and accepted tests for areas like network administration and general programming knowledge. IT applicants - even those with degrees - often take those tests to demonstrate their knowledge in relevant areas. Maybe that idea could be expanded beyond the IT world (if it hasn't already) so that job seekers who lack a college degree can voluntarily take the test(s) to establish their credentials. Would it be legally possible for an employer to require applicants pass those tests or would that also be opposed?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are a variety of content-relevant exams in various fields (medical, legal, CPA exam, etc.). The issue is, though, that eligibility to sit for these exams often requires... you guessed it, a college degree.
For example, for the CPA exam, most states require 150 credit hours (roughly 5 years' college credit) and often a certain number of hours specifically in accounting courses, just to take the exam. That's more than enough to get a degree (as long as you check all the right boxes along the way).
So the testing currently in place doesn't help alleviate the problem.
In professional, technical fields with a body of knowledge, college isn't necessarily a bad way to go, because there is a bunch of stuff to learn to even get to entry-level ability. But do they need to read Plato (or, more likely, skim the Sparknotes on Plato) along the way? Probably not. I never liked the 150-hour requirement for CPAs, but that's the world I live in.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLarry J,
The issue is that what companies would need here is not a test that measures what an applicant knows, but whether or not they can learn. It's almost a waste of time to test a kid right out of high school on whether or not he can program a disk drive to read and write; the real thing the employer wants to know is, with a couple months of on the job training, can he learn enough?
Unfortunately, it is tests like that that are most likely to fall victim to civil rights lawsuits, because they aren't directly relevant to the job.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePlease list jobs or occupations your adored SAT would definitively prove said person can do.
I gave my explaination of the SAT in comments of Mr. VerBruggen's article regarding this one. If you couldn't tell I'm not in the 'pro' group.
Perhaps primary and secondary schools should be a little more 'educating' in their duties. The first year of college should not be a repeat of high school. Then there wouldn't be such a general disparagement between grads and non-grads, as well as test-wavers and people who live in reality.
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