The introduction of the SAT English Absolute Test aims to reduce the cost of private education and normalize public education, but it may cause problems such as decreased discrimination and complicated entrance exams. Therefore, it is questionable whether the absolute assessment will actually have a positive effect.
It is said that a strong mountain changes in 10 years, but education-related policies often last less than a year. On October 20, the Ministry of Education formalized the discussion of the long-mentioned “absolute SAT English assessment,” which means that it will abolish the relative assessment system, which divides students’ scores into ranks and assigns them a certain percentage of the grade, and introduce an absolute assessment system that divides the grade according to a certain score standard. This policy is aimed at reducing the burden of private education costs on students and increasing reliance on public education. However, I oppose the introduction of the SAT English Absolute Test because it will not only reduce the discriminatory power of the test, but also complicate the college admissions process and cause various problems.
First of all, if the discriminatory power of the English test is reduced, there may be side effects such as the ‘balloon effect’. Currently, students in Korea are so proficient in English that it’s not uncommon for them to score in the 90s and still be in the second or third tier if the test is made a little easier. For example, if you get one question wrong, you can get a grade 2, and if you get two wrong, you can get a grade 3, or outside the top 11%, if it’s a big question. The 2014 SAT had a cutoff score of 98 for the first level and 97 for the second level, and the 2012 SAT had a very small score difference between the two levels, with 97 for the first level and 94 for the second level. English is one of the most difficult subjects to scale. In this situation, if you introduce ambiguous criteria and provide test questions of ambiguous difficulty, many students will be able to achieve the highest possible score, making SAT English a de facto qualification. In other words, it will be much less discriminating.
The problem doesn’t end there. As the discriminatory power of the English test declines, the relative importance of other subjects, such as math, may increase, leading to a “ballooning effect” in which the cost of private education for these subjects increases. The balloon effect means that solving one problem creates another problem, which means that introducing an absolute assessment in the SAT to solve the problem of private education in English may increase the cost of private education in other subjects.
In addition, changing the SAT to an absolute assessment of English could complicate the admissions process for universities. Most universities consider English as an important measure of a student’s academic ability. However, if the SAT makes English an absolute test, students with similar grades will cluster together, weakening its discriminatory power. To counteract this, universities can either create a separate test, such as an English essay, or significantly reduce the English portion of the SAT. This could lead to confusion in preparing for each university’s admissions syllabus, and students may require additional private tutoring to meet the various tests, which could again increase private education costs.
On the other hand, proponents of the SAT English absolute assessment point to positive effects such as reducing private education costs and normalizing public education. At a public hearing held by the Ministry of Education on October 20, professors and researchers in favor of absolute assessment presented the following evidence.
First, it will reduce the cost of private education. English is one of the major subjects that students receive a lot of private education from a young age, and the burden of private education costs is considerable. English-language kindergartens and academies are ubiquitous, and many parents emphasize the importance of language training for their children. It is argued that the introduction of absolute assessment will make it easier to get a high grade than relative assessment, which will reduce the burden of learning English and naturally reduce the reliance on private education, thus reducing the cost of private education.
Second, they argue that if the burden of learning is reduced and private education is reduced, public education can be normalized. Currently, middle and high school students study English mainly for the SAT, so even if schools teach various contents, they end up relying on cram schools or tutoring. However, if the burden of the SAT is reduced, students will rely less on private education and more on public education.
Third, it is argued that discriminatory power can be maintained by setting appropriate grade divisions and score bands. Just as in the relative assessment, examiners anticipate the number of students in each grade and adjust the difficulty level accordingly, they argue that in the absolute assessment, appropriate grade bands can be set to prevent students from being overwhelmed by the higher grades.
Finally, she emphasizes that the purpose of learning English is to communicate, not to learn how to solve problems. With relative assessment, students focus on how to solve problems in order to get one more question right, whereas with absolute assessment, they are free from the pressure of one question and can learn English for its true purpose.
However, there are limitations and contradictions to these arguments. While the introduction of absolute assessment may reduce the cost of private English education, it may also make absolute assessment less meaningful as universities introduce new criteria to evaluate the scores generated by absolute assessment. Furthermore, even if English tutoring decreases, the cost of tutoring in other subjects, such as math, is likely to increase.
The argument that discrimination can be maintained through appropriate grade splits and score bands also has its limitations. The term “appropriate” is very vague. Even if examiners do predict and adjust scores, they rarely get it right. While the government promises to adjust the difficulty of the test each year to ensure that no more than 1% of all test takers score at the top of each section, there have been repeated instances of tests becoming too easy and losing discriminatory power, or too hard. For example, in the 2014 SAT Biology II test, 4% of students scored perfect scores due to difficulty, but in the 2015 SAT, only 0.21% of students scored perfect scores due to difficulty. This dividing line is even harder to predict in an absolute assessment.
Furthermore, the argument for using absolute scores for the intrinsic educational purposes of English is not convincing. Whether it’s absolute or relative, it’s simply a standard of evaluation and has nothing to do with communicative competence. Emphasizing communicative competence is a matter of teaching style, not testing style. The expectation that changing the evaluation criteria to absolute evaluation will result in a test that evaluates communication skills is a bit of a stretch.
Fluency in English and maintaining a high level of learning are important advantages in an internationalized society. To properly assess this, it is preferable to keep the current relative assessment. Introducing an absolute assessment of English in the SAT would not only lead to an overall decline in students’ English language proficiency, but it would also lead to a decrease in the cost of private education and complicate the admissions process. It would be more effective to improve the education system and strengthen school education while maintaining the current relative assessment. Therefore, I oppose the introduction of an absolute assessment of English in the SAT.
