<p>Parent, schools submit school profiles if the child is applying to a certain college so that administrators will know the background of the school, how many National Merit finalists, the percentage of children attending college, etc. etc. College essayists for admissions will not go away. I know that.</p>
<p>I work with students during the summer who cannot afford Kaplan/Princeton SAT/ACT programs, and the results I see are mind-boggling. As long as the students have exposure, their test scores will rise. If the students don't understand the material, they just drop their pencils and sleep through the exams. I know this sounds shocking, but this is quite the norm. I'm happy that the SAT 2005 got rid of the analogies, the Algebra II should not be too bad (Although I know some school districts that don't even require Algebra II for graduation purposes, yes I know, shocking!)</p>
<p>My biggest worries are the essays. The topics are so vague (politics, arts, technology, etc...who do you think knows more about this material?) that students who will do well on them will come from mostly middle class backgrounds. You will probably agree that the SAT should weed out those not "college-material". However, it does not address the problems facing low-performing schools like lack of resources, high teacher turnover rates, poverty, etc.</p>