美国大学入学考试SAT的变迁——基于社会历史与意识形态视角的分析

Evolution and Transition of College Entrance Exam SAT in the United States of America——Perspectives from Social History and Ideology

美国SAT考试自1926年设立以来,从试题内容和美国公众对SAT作为一项考试制度的关注热点两方面进行分析,可以划分为三个发展阶段。该项考试设计之初曾期待通过弱化高等教育入学考试和中学教学之间的关联,以天资测验的方式进行实现跨越社会阶层的人才选拔。经历近百年的沿革,SAT改革却再次要求更贴近中学教学。如今的SAT依然呈现出与社会阶层、种族之间的强烈相关性。在这番历史的回归中,可以看到美国社会对科学理性主导下标准化测量的追求,以及当代美国社会多元利益主体的不同诉求对考试制度的直接影响。美国特定的社会历史为SAT的诞生与发展提供了直接的土壤,对平等的追求成为贯穿其中的社会意识形态。

As one of the most widely used and deepest researched college entrance ex- ams, SAT has gone through three different development stages since 1926 in which its con- tent and form and its role playing in college application system in the US have also experi- enced many reforms. Among these stages and reforms, two unique factors emerged： the pur- suit for scientific rationality and technological means and different demands requested by multiple stakeholders in contemporary America society. Furthermore, as a social institute, SAT is blossomed by particular social history in the US society. The pursuit for equality, in addition, becomes the dominant ideology throughout the development of SAT. Therefore, dipping into a specific test system offers us a path to understand a specific society and cul- ture. Besides instrumental view, perspectives of social history and ideology should be in- volved in the field of test study.