South Dakota’s public university system has promised that students earning a level 3 or 4 on their Smarter Balanced Assessment will be guaranteed a general acceptance to one of the state’s six public universities or four technical schools.
The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports:
High school seniors in South Dakota may receive an acceptance letter for college before they ever apply.
In an effort to boost enrollment, South Dakota public universities will be sending out what they call “proactive admissions” letters to qualifying students later this month.
These letters will go to students who score well in English and math on either the state standardized tests or on the ACT. Students who receive letters will be guaranteed acceptance into the state’s six public universities and four tech schools.
“This now is the first criteria that our institutions will use to determine a student’s admission,” said Paul Turman, vice president for academic affairs for the South Dakota Board of Regents.
Students who earn an 18 on their ACT will also receive a general acceptance letter.
This news provides more motivation for teachers to prep the state’s high school juniors for the Smarter Balanced Assessment. Oh goody.
I have never read the South Dakota RTTT application but I did read the RTTT application for TN. In that application there was a deal cut with all colleges and universities in our state to accept students without remediation if they passed “the test.” It appears to me as if this was probably a requirement of all applicants. This effort does nothing more than make it appear as if more students are getting into college without remediation. Then when they get into college they take remediation courses but get college credit for them so they don’t appear as if they are remediation courses. As we know in the past remediation was never awarded college credit. They are putting more effort into making it “appear” as if education is improving and our children doing better than in actual real remedies and positive outcomes. Scamming the system is always so much easier now isn’t it??