Dumbing Down the Sat Bodes Poorly for Education

"Dumbing down" is an imprecise and inaccurate description of the most recent changes to the SAT.

The Collegeboard did indeed adjust the test to better appeal to students, but this was primarily done by shortening the length of the exam from ~ 3 hours to ~2 hours. To compensate for this, the test was updated to an adaptive format to present students with more questions of appropriate difficulty levels based on their performance.

The other main change, which the article highlights, was to shorten the reading passages. Yes, there are skills no longer being tested because of this change, but it's also allowed for a broader array of passages to be included. The new version of the test introduced poetry and novel question types involving logical reasoning and use of data. Which of these skills are more important for success in college and future careers is a worthwhile question to ask, but not one with an obvious answer.