Princeton Review founder talks on testing, education

and Nora Kassis Ironically, the founder and president of The Princeton Review feels that the Scholastic Aptitude Test "tests nothing." John Katzman is also the co-author of five books about college admissions and testing. He said he thinks college students are the primary "witnesses" of the pitfalls of the American education system. Therefore, he believes they should be influential voices in nation-wide educational reform. But he admitted that students -- who are still harnessed by the reigns of the Educational Testing Service -- are never asked their opinion of the system. In his most recent book, Class Action, Katzman outlines "how to create accountability, innovation and excellence in American schools." "People think it's weird," he said. "I mean, what would I know about school reform? "In fact, I don't know much," he added. "I'm not an expert in education or curricula, but I do know how the SAT and college admissions effects the performance and behavior of high schools." The central theory of his book, known as the Multiple National Curricula Plan, is based on the premise that students are "the products" of high schools and "the customers are colleges." He said he feels that if highly selective colleges amend their admissions standards, high schools will adjust accordingly. Such reforms would include absolving standardized tests and contriving new means of assessing the performance of students. He claimed that "the lever of school reform is in the hands of colleges and businesses" and added that university presidents, therefore, have the power to improve the entire national educational system. Katzman argued that this domino effect has been proven in the past with the acceptance of the Advanced Placement test as a standard of evaluation. "Colleges said they were going to accept AP credit? and all of the sudden every high school in the country had AP courses," he said. "All [colleges] said was 'we'll accept it,' and the high schools worked it out from there." Katzman said he envisions a college application system which "will require scores on curricula-bound tests, instead of the SAT." He said he hopes that these reforms will "eliminate all of the bias currently existing in the format of standardized tests favoring white males. I would rather help kids do well on tests that really test their abilities."