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January 31, 2012 11:06 AM
Cooking Test Scores
Interesting item from the New York Times yesterday:
Claremont McKenna College, a small, prestigious California school, said Monday that for the past six years, it has submitted false SAT scores to publications like U.S. News & World Report that use the data in widely followed college rankings.
In a message e-mailed to college staff members and students, Claremont McKenna’s president since 1999, Pamela B. Gann, wrote that “a senior administrator” had taken sole responsibility for falsifying the scores, admitted doing so since 2005, and resigned his post.
There’s no particular reason to suspect that this is more than an isolated incident. But like the far larger test-score cheating scandal in Atlanta that was exposed last year, it’s a reminder that rating schools and students based on very narrow self-submitted quantitative data produces powerful incentives for cooking the books. Regular readers of the Washington Monthly are familiar with this publication’s efforts to provide information on colleges that goes beyond the limited but highly-influential material supplied by U.S. News and other sources. Removing the silver bullet of shallow measurements of educational quality can help reduce the temptation to just make it all up.
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Dan on January 31, 2012 11:47 AM:
And here I thought we were going to find out what Callista's specialty was, and how it compared to Ann Romney's.
Gov't Mule on January 31, 2012 11:47 AM:
It really makes you wonder why anyone from CMC would need to cook the books for US News. Claremont has an excellent record and does not need anyone to falsely exaggerate the fact the college is highly selective.
One thing this revelation does is make me wonder how accurate ANY of the information colleges and universities submitted to US News and others actually is. It is true that I have no proof to make a claim like this but I would not be surprised if this practice is widespread. Moreover, your analogy to the cheating scandal in Atlanta is flawed. The practice is much more common than you would have readers believe as in the Michelle Rhee cheating scandal.
berttheclock on January 31, 2012 12:06 PM:
Oh my, do you mean those test scores of their alum, Randy Steven Kraft, could be tainted?
B. Klein on January 31, 2012 12:32 PM:
Back when I was applying to college in the early 1990s I interviewed at many small, prestigious liberal arts colleges, including Claremont McKenna. My SAT scores were exactly in line with what was generally required to be accepted into a highly selective liberal art college.
None of my interviewers ever mentioned my SAT scores at all. They were plenty high and so were my grades and there was no question that I was qualified. The interviews were instead all about what kind of person I was and how I'd fit into the various colleges.
Except at Claremont McKenna. In that interview the interviewer was obsessed with my SAT score and implied again and again that she'd like it to be even higher. It was bizarre. I mean, Claremont McKenna was basically my safety school. My scores were well above their average. But she kept harping on it: couldn't I get them even higher.
Well, because of that interview I decided not to apply to Claremont McKenna. And I ended up being accepted at and graduating from a far, far more prestigious liberal arts college.
But when I read about Claremont McKenna lying about their SAT scores today, I thought back to that interview and I can't say I'm surprised by the college's actions.
RD Padouk on January 31, 2012 12:50 PM:
I graduated from one of the Claremont Colleges, although not CMC, and am shocked at this. CMC is a fantastic school. It doesn't need this kind of tinkering.
Mitt's Magic Underwear on January 31, 2012 1:03 PM:
The person who led the info session at CMC was, by far, the best of all his peers we've come across in all the school visit's we've done with our daughter. And the student tour leader was the happiest and friendliest. The coach of the sport our daughter would do there (she's a Sr in HS) has been, by far, the kindest, too.
Just fyi.
Mitt's Magic Underwear on January 31, 2012 1:08 PM:
PS -- our daughter's SAT is over 2300.
Dave Munger on January 31, 2012 1:39 PM:
I love the photo of the college president -- she looks like she's talking up the size of the fish she just caught. Perfect for this story!
David Martin on January 31, 2012 2:07 PM:
B. Klein's comment mirrors my experience back in the late 1960s. Elite schools don't ask about SATs because nearly all the applicants have the scores and the grades. It's a matter of finding applicants who have other properties--athletics, arts, public service, whatever. I had the SATs but evidently not some of the other stuff, so ended up at my safety school.
grandpa john on January 31, 2012 2:34 PM:
Many colleges are now moving away from putting so much emphasis on SAT scores and more on things such as class rank or GPR's especially in the core curriculem, activities, etc. They are finding that high SAT/ACT scores do not always equate to college success whereas high ranking and GPRs illustrate the students desire to succeed and willingness to study and work to achieve that success.
Matt on January 31, 2012 3:19 PM:
As a Pomona College graduate, this does not surprise me one bit. CMC is obsessed with overtaking Pomona in the prestige rankings. It was the only Claremont school where the students would argue about how much better they were than the others. And I guess the administration was so desperate that it got to the point of fabricating admission data. Sad.
R on January 31, 2012 4:36 PM:
What's most depressing in the bigger picture that these ranking schemes are bogus (see http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_gladwell), and yet people supposedly dedicated to lux et veritas -- and by this I mean college presidents -- play along so willingly. Not only do they submit data (accurate or otherwise); they make decisions aimed at improving rankings rather than improving education. Want to improve your "student selectivity" score? Encourage more kids to apply, even those who have little chance of getting in. Of course that means you'll need a bigger admissions office, and more support staff; just freeze the number of faculty members. Bravo to those few schools (Reed, e.g.: http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/college_rankings.html) that have the integrity to stay out of it.
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