One more cycle of SAT fever has erupted, brought on by the release of the latest scores. Every county, with the assistance of their local media, has released a new ranking of their district's high schools. Each school administrator has either winced or rejoiced, and teachers work to reassess test-taking strategies. Parents gloated or groaned, and real estate agents converted the scores to a `fair market value' figure. Politicians will manipulate the data to support or oppose current reform movements, depending on their ideology, and the rhetorical gyrations will fill the editorial pages for months. Meanwhile, every young test taker has learned quite quickly where they fall in the grand scale of life. Woe to those at the bottom.

But the 55% of high school seniors who did not take the SAT feel relieved and vindicated, knowing the test is irrelevant to their career choice. These students tend to be the pragmatic children of the working-class. They are not worth less to our society than their SAT-taking peers, and their educational needs are just as vital. Nor does refusing to take the test suggest that they will fail in their endeavors. But in all the hoopla stirred up to improve SAT scores, their critical contributions to the economy may be desperately undervalued and their specific needs for training all but ignored, simply because they are not bound for the corporate boardroom.

So why don't administrators, pollsters, parents, and philosophers know what these students already know, that the SAT is not a measure of the effectiveness of the school, the quality of the teacher, or the value of the student? In fact, the only definitive correlate for higher SAT scores is family income. Yes, family income. If districts desire scores of 1000 or better, the average family income in the district must be in the $70,000 range. Reexamine the posturing of parents, policy makers, and even real estate agents in the light of that one sure relationship, and maybe the SAT only measures one thing...financial well-being. The pragmatic working-class student probably already knew that, as well, which may make them just a bit more savvy and, dare we say, smarter than all the politicians and pundits put together, regardless of their collective SAT scores.

If we were a nation at risk with regard to science and math skills, we would be shipping cargo on a Russian space shuttle. Where we are at risk is in dealing with a burgeoning underclass given to poverty and crime. The SAT preparatory class will not solve that dilemma, and neither will attendance at the traditional four year college. While we may say higher learning deepens the moral character, who would suggest that the poor and poorly educated are innately immoral? So we dare not suggest that college cures the criminal tendency.

Yet touting the high score of a test used for admission to a four-year college, condemns, albiet by an ever so mild implication, those who scored low or who did not take the test at all. And from this implied condemnation, the bottom-ranked student develops low self-esteem, discouragement, bitterness, and a host of other ills that make it yet more difficult to teach him the current curriculum, including SAT preparatory skills. Not only that, this climate of defeat and discouragement may become at least a contributing factor in a young person's downward spiral to criminal activity. We give them two choices: take the test and rank high, or avoid the test altogether. Neither choice meets their needs.

What the lower-scoring students of lower income families do need is relevant course work that will prepare them for a decent, honest trade. They need to be empowered with the ability to think critically about making a living wage and being an active citizen. They need quality schools with wonderful teachers who respect their vocational agenda. They need an administration that thinks creatively about a school's mission and advocates for appropriate resources. They need a form of assessment that truly correlates with genuine achievement, teacher performance, and curriculum relevance. Most of all, they need a supportive community that will value their contribution and be proud to live near their school. They do not need an SAT score, high or otherwise.