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In reply to the discussion: University of California Will End Use of SAT and ACT in Admissions [View all]Yavin4
(35,437 posts)critical thinking skills.
First, we've had the SAT and ACT tests for decades now, and American critical thinking skils have declined over that time. Second, these tests do not test critical thinking skills. They test your ability to sit in a room and take a test for 4 hours. There's a lot more that goes into learning than sitting for an exam.
But, let's take the point of your post, the dumbing down of Americans. We can accomplish that without the SAT or ACT. We can acomplish that with better investment in K-12 education with pre-school for everyone and extending high school for 2 years using those years to prepare students for the real world or higher education.
The anti-intellectualism movement has gained traction in our culture because our education system only wants to teach the cognitive elite. Students are repeatedly tested. Those that do well on a test are sent to the better public schools and get the better teachers. Those that do not do well are shuffled off to the side and ignored. These are the people that become fodder for the anti-intellectualism that you're complaining about.