Millennial Debate Standardized Testing Debate
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- Cultural bias undermines it as an intelligence test
- Racial Bias
- SAT Tests a Limited Set of Skills
- A2: Foreign Students Provide Diversity
SAT Has a Cultural BiasSAT questions culturally biasedJames Moynihan, MA, Spring, 2014, MA Thesis Admitting Bias: A Review of the Test-Optional Admission Policy at George Mason University, http://digilib.gmu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1920/8679/Moynihan_thesis_2014.pdf?sequence=1 DOA: 10-25-15 Part of the reason why minority students struggle with the SAT exam is because its questions have, and continue to be, inherently lenient to, and focused upon, the life experiences of middle and upper class students (who tend to be traditionally white), as opposed to the life and academic experiences of lower-income students (including those for whom English may be a second language). Robert Schaeffer, the Director of Center of Public Education, cited several analogy questions from over the years which can be considered culturally biased, including this former SAT question: RUNNER: MARATHON: A) envoy: embassy B) martyr: massacre C) oarsman: regatta D) referee: tournament E) horse: stable The answer is C, which Schaeffer describes as “incredibly culturally centered. You don’t see a regatta in center-city L.A., you don’t see it in Appalachia, you don’t see it in New Mexico” (as cited in Pringle, 2003, p. 2). This is one example of how the SAT uses vocabulary and experiences which a low-income minority student from an inner-city school would not likely encounter. Critics have asserted, and much of the public still believes, that the SAT is mainly a test of upper-middle-class socialization (Grissmer, 2000).
James Moynihan, MA, Spring, 2014, MA Thesis Admitting Bias: A Review of the Test-Optional Admission Policy at George Mason University, http://digilib.gmu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1920/8679/Moynihan_thesis_2014.pdf?sequence=1 DOA: 10-25-15 With the growth of interest in college from non-white and international students, intelligence testing becomes increasingly more difficult. In order to evaluate the intelligence of students from different cultures, intelligence must be measured using the same difficulty for everyone. Intelligence testing, like the SAT, which has a direct relationship to socio-economic status and utilizes questions that are culturally biased, is not an equal measure of intelligence for all students. The validity of intelligence testing must be questioned when evaluating students with different life experiences. Racial BiasAfrican American and Indian minorities are more likely to live in povertyJames Moynihan, MA, Spring, 2014, MA Thesis Admitting Bias: A Review of the Test-Optional Admission Policy at George Mason University, http://digilib.gmu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1920/8679/Moynihan_thesis_2014.pdf?sequence=1 DOA: 10-25-15 It is important to note, that race and socio-economic status cannot be used interchangeably. In fact, the majority of low income Americans are White. The research will refer to both aspects of diversity with the understanding that race has a direct relationship to socio-economic status, African American students are three times more likely to live in poverty than White students. In addition, American Indian and/or Alaska Native, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian families are all more likely than White Americans to live in poverty (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). SAT Tests a Limited Set of SkillsSAT only tests one form of intelligenceJoseph Soares, 2013, Joseph A. Soares is a Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University. His book The Power of Privilege: Yale and America’s Elite Colleges (2007) was instrumental in Wake Forest’s decision to go test-optional in admissions. An earlier book on universities in the United Kingdom, The Decline of Privilege: The Modernization of Oxford University (1999), won a national award from the American Sociological Association. For most of 2008, he was a member of the National Education Policy Group for Barack Obama’s campaign for U.S. President. Dr. Soares organized the national “Rethinking Admissions” conference held at Wake Forest University in April 2009. Soares, Joseph A. (2011-09-30). SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions, Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition, page number at end of the card It says something very profound about the role of the SAT today if Charles Murray has abandoned it. Part II begins by rejecting the notion that underpins the SAT (explicitly in the past, implicitly at present): that there is only one type of intelligence. Theories of multiple intelligences, famously associated with the names of Howard Gardner and Robert J. Sternberg, argue in favor of colleges selecting for a diversity of intelligences beyond the analytic ability tapped by tests like the SAT. When DePaul University went test-optional in 2011, becoming then the largest private university in the United States to do so, it knew that high school grades best predicted college grades, and that SAT/ ACT scores transmitted social disparities, but it was also impressed by the multiple-intelligence alternative of “noncognitive assessment.” As the Chronicle of Higher Education reported, “DePaul officials began investigating noncognitive assessments several years ago. In 2008 the university added four short essay questions to its freshman application. Those questions were based on the research of William E. Sedlacek, a professor emeritus of education at the University of Maryland at College Park and author of Beyond the Big Test: Noncognitive Assessment in Higher Education [2004]” (Hoover, 2011). Admissions practices, such as DePaul used, that are sensitive to multiple intelligences are urged by authors in this book. A2: Foreign Students Provide DiversityForeign students don’t bring socioeconomic diversityJames Moynihan, MA, Spring, 2014, MA Thesis Admitting Bias: A Review of the Test-Optional Admission Policy at George Mason University, http://digilib.gmu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1920/8679/Moynihan_thesis_2014.pdf?sequence=1 DOA: 10-25-15 International students have also become a major focus of enrollment offices. In the 2012-13 academic year a record, 819,644 foreign students studied in the United States. This is a 7.2% increase from the previous year, according to an annual report released by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization (2013). These students are often required to submit bank statements in order to be considered for admission. These statements are included in their application material to demonstrate the capabilities to afford tuition, room and board at United States institutions. These students certainly bring a level of diversity to college campuses but in no way is that diversity related in socio economic status. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 1.17 Mb. Share with your friends:
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