An audience of nearly 150 people filled the Arco Forum last night to watch a preview of the "Frontline" television documentary entitled Secrets of the SAT at an Institute of Politics event at the Kennedy School of Government.

The program consisted of a video followed by a discussion on the validity of the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) in light of social, racial and economic factors that significantly influence an individual's score.

The forum's panelists were Harvard Professor of Law Lani Guinier '71; Professor of Education and Social Policy Gary A. Orfield; Wayne Camara, a representative of The College Board, the company that administers the SAT; and Michael Chandler, the program's producer.

The forum was moderated by Bradley Professor of Government Thomas E. Patterson, acting director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Before the discussion began, the audience viewed the documentary, which the rest of the country will see Oct.5 PBS when it airs nationally.

The film focused on the lives of a handful of high school seniors from varied backgrounds, living in California and applying to the University of California at Berkeley.

Berkeley was selected as the college of focus because it has, as a result of a Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, eliminated race as a factor in determining which students to accept.

The main subject of the film is J.K., a hard-working black student with high grades and demonstrated leadership who comes from an underprivileged socioeconomic background. For J.K., getting in to Berkeley seems reasonable except for one item, his significantly below-average SAT score--an 850.

The video, through interviews with a variety of experts, asks whether J.K.'s college options--and the options of students like him--should be limited by SAT scores.