Note on a NYT opinion piece in favor of the SAT

I'm always of more than two minds about standardized testing, but when I find myself disagreeing with many friends and family members who revile testing (and seemingly with my own often left-of-social-liberal politics in defending this very flawed status quo), it's in large because of this (and see link at bottom for full Times piece):

"Consider that good grades from a struggling public school in Mississippi could be discounted by admissions officers and scholarship committees compared with good grades coming from an elite private or public magnet school that offers AP courses and an honors curriculum."

"These generalized, unfair distinctions, which are often a result of socioeconomic biases, can often be overcome by the counterweight of strong standardized test scores from students in public schools perceived as middling or underperforming."

"The tests are, yes, an imperfect counterweight — with their own historical bias toward white normativity, among other issues. But grades and standardized test scores are two of the only remotely “objective” measures of performance that our brilliant pupils of all backgrounds have."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/opinion/coronavirus-test-optional-sat.html