Page 14 -The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 7, 1990 SAT From the College Press scores s] 1 ! _1... A 7 Service Although their math scores held steady, this year's college first-year student's average verbal scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) were lower than previous classes', the College Board reported Aug. 28. It was the fourth consecutive year in which average verbal scores de- clined, prompting education experts to look for scapegoats and standard- ized test opponents to repeat their watnings that the tests are essen- tially meaningless. "'The verbal decline this year is disturbing, but not particularly sur- prising," said Donald Stewart, president of the College Board, the New York-based organization that manages the SAT and other standard- ized student tests. The verbal score for the high school class of 1990 fell three points to 424 out of a possible 800. Stewart blamed the decline of verbal scores on students who watch too much television. "Students must pay less attention to video games and music videos, and begin to read more," he advised. "Reading is in danger of becom- ing a 'lost art' among too many ire agai; ree American students, and that would percent of the students who took the be a national tragedy," he continued. SAT, two percent more than last Lynne Cheney, chair of the year However, their scores showed National Endowment for the little or no improvement. Humanities, cited "dumbed-down" Mexican-Americans and Puerto textbooks, unprepared teachers and Ricans dropped one point each in course work that is "not as demand- verbal and math while other His- ing as it should be" for the decline. panic students fell six points in ver- Last October, after her group bal and two points in math. sponsored a study showing that a Verbal scores for African-Ameri- large percentage of college seniors can students rose one point but fell didn't know key historical dates and one point in math. phrases, Cheney called for colleges American Indians posted a four- to implement a 50-hour core curricu- point verbal increase and a nine- lum for their humanities programs. point math increase, while Asian- The College Board report found Americans improved by a point in that minority students constituted 27 the verbal and three points in the vision L math test. Yet critics shouldn't bother mea- suring the ups and downs of various groups' scores on the tests because the tests themselves are flawed, SAT critics maintained. "You can't accurately measure the nation's academic temperature with a defective thermometer," said Bob Schaeffer of Fairtest, a Mas- sachusetts organization which op- poses standardized testing. Schaeffer agrees American educa- tion is decaying, but blames public schools' fixation with multiple choice testing for the phenomenon. John Katzman, president of the )lamed Princeton Review, which coaches students taking the SAT, called the. College Board "a bunch of bizarre guys." "The important thing to remem- ber is that the SAT this year is a lift tle less relevant to anything going on in high school, college or busi- ness," Katzman said. Both Schaeffer and Katzman found irony in the fact that the Cof- lege Board is reportedly looking into adding essay tests and open-ended math questions to the SAT to make it less coachable. « S. State republicans prepare for united battle in fall elections. LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The bickering and bitterness of the 1988 GOP presidential wars have passed, so Republicans say they'll be able to concentrate at this weekend's state convention on beating Democrats. "We're not being driven by presi- dential politics and so we're back to the goal of winning elections," said gubernatorial candidate John Engler, who is also the Senate majority leader. The Michigan Republican Party went to war with itself in 1987 and 1988 with various factions backing George Bush and Jack Kemp. The wounds slowly healed and Engler said the party is whole again this year, and he's worked hard to make that happen. "We've consulted with an awful lot of people. One of the strengths I'm going to have going into this convention is the number of people, regardless of their philosophy, who have been part of the decision-mak- ing," he said. Schuette, of Sanford, said having a relatively bloodless primary elec- tion campaign against Clark Durant had been one of his goals. "After the primary, none of the pundits could write that there was blood in the streets of the Republi- can Party because that didn't hap- pen," he said. "That was part of our strategy since day one. Our objective is to beat the Democratic incumbent, Carl Levin. That's what we focus on." Engler, who is running against Gov. James Blanchard, moved to head off any party quarrels by an- nouncing early his choice for the various education posts filled at the convention. He also made early picks for the secretary of state and at- torney general candidates. "I think the ticket broadly repre- sents all philosophies within the party. It's a ticket that has appeal geographically, it has gender appeal. It has, more importantly, qualifica- tions appeal," he said. "One thing I've heard from peo- ple across the state, regardless of whether they're conservative or mod- erate in philosophy, is a desire for competence and for quality candi- dates." Ironically, as Democrats gather in Flint this weekend for their state convention, that party's still abuzz from Blanchard's decisions to dump 78-year-old Lt. Gov. Martha Grif- 1 CASIO The scientific wa d fiths and replace her with 54-year-old Olivia Maynard. Republican Party Chairperson Spencer Abraham declined to com- ment on the Democrats' trouble, but he said he was glad his party was, united and focusing on winning eleq- tions. "I spent a lot of time on those ir- traparty battles and I'm happy to be on the other side of the aisle now,' he said. Nows Art& Opinion Photo... Join the Daily! 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