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Although the pamphlet hardly mentions the offending letters, the very notion that the government might be commenting on the appropriateness of the controversial college entrance exam was enough to reignite a decades-long battle about the efficacy of standardized tests and their role as gatekeepers to higher education.

See what books are making news at BARNES & NOBLE

Like so many debates over education in our country, the battlefield is sharply divided along partisan lines. On one side are the liberal to left-leaning activists who believe the SAT and other number standards (like grade-point averages) should be junked or de-emphasized in order to allow more minorities into college. The Department of Education pamphlet -- called "Nondiscrimination in High-Stakes Testing: A Resource Guide" -- has been accused of abetting their argument. On the other side are the conservative defenders of the SAT as an embodiment of our meritocratic educational standards. The columnist John Leo, in U.S. News and World Report, called the education department's paper "an attempt to decapitate traditional assessments of merit at a single stroke and push the colleges to accept large numbers of applicants who are well below their standards." The editors at the Wall Street Journal ridiculed the pamphlet and offered a stronger endorsement of the exam: "The truth is, [SATs] are highly accurate predictors of college performance, of who is and isn't likely to graduate."

But is this true? Or is the SAT debate like so many other culture-war battles -- fueled by misinformation?

"They weren't quoting us," says Kevin Gonzalez about the Wall Street Journal's claims. Gonzalez is a spokesman for Educational Testing Service, which writes and administers the SAT. "We wouldn't say that."

Next page | What the SAT predicts