While many are suspicious of the changes that the College Board and ETS are planning for the SAT (changes made largely to placate the University of California, which had threatened to stop requiring the test), college admissions counselor John Harper argues in the cover story of this week's Weekly Standard that the new test is a big improvement. The old one purported to measure student aptitude or sheer intelligence rather than academic achievement, which is heavily influenced by the quality of the school that a student is lucky enough to attend. But Harper points out the reality that higher scores on the old SAT could be bought by those with the means to afford expensive test prep programs, which made a mockery of the idea that the test would equalize opportunities by identifying "diamonds in the rough" who had the misfortune to attend mediocre high schools. "The New, Improved SAT," by John Harper, The Weekly Standard, August 26, 2002
