“If you believe in equality, you should defend the SAT,” argues Freddie deBoer in “The Progressive Case for the SAT.” He contends that SAT scores merely reflect larger race and class inequalities. However, given that holistic college admissions are flawed due to those same race and class inequalities in GPAs and grade inflation, he reasons that it is more equitable to keep using the SAT for college entrance than to scrap it.

To support his argument, deBoer then draws on research claiming that bias in SAT performance due to increased tutoring and resources is negligible, and that there is no race or class bias in the exam itself. Along the way, deBoer suggests that, while well-meaning, progressive criticisms of the SAT simply amount to “folk wisdom” and are wrong.

As a Marxist who researches, writes, and speaks extensively about high-stakes, standardized testing, I found deBoer’s argument to be puzzling. It was almost as if he hadn’t actually investigated the history of the SAT, engaged with the extensive body of research about the exam, thought through the political implications of his own argument, or taken the time to analyze the capitalist ideology that lays at the SAT’s foundation. Understanding the shortcomings of deBoer’s position is important for radicals and socialists because it is shared by many parents trying to navigate our system of education — and it is these parents we want to better organize to fundamentally reshape the entire system.