Millennial Debate Standardized Testing Debate
SAT Has a Substantial SES Bias
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- Strong correlation between SAT scores and income
- SAT test is an indicator of SES and limits college access for underrepresented classes
- SAT scores less valuable for admissions scores than transcripts and they reinforce inequality
- White and affluent students perform best on the SAT
- Wealthy kids can afford SAT prep
- Affluence ties to high scores
SAT Has a Substantial SES BiasSAT structurally biased against lower SES studentsJames 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 Critics of the test argue that the SAT is not the best indication of what a students’ success level will be once they get to college, and that it does not effectively place students on a fair and equal playing field. Critics have cited SAT test questions, which they believe are biased against low-income students, particularly those who speak English as a second language (Pringle, 2003). These concerns, coupled with the opportunities for students (often white, middle- and upper-class students) to be “coached” through the SAT exam, are perceived as unfair advantages for certain students who take the test. The validity of intelligence testing must be questioned when evaluating students with different life experiences. Topics and terms which are familiar to students in one culture may not be similar to students in another. Barnett and Williams (2011) speak to the validity of testing: Even if an intelligence test is capable of making meaningful distinctions between individuals who have similar life experiences it may not have the same meaning when comparing individuals with different life experiences (p. 669). In many cases, the SAT can act as an impartial measure of a student’s ability, but the problem has always been that the foundation of the SAT is unjust to select groups of people because of their upbringing and/or socio-economic background. According to Avery and Hoxby (2012), just 17 percent of high-achieving students (top 10% of SAT scorers) are from families estimated to be in the bottom quartile of the income distribution (p.33). For those people who are concerned with racial and socio-economic equity and access to higher education, there is a fear that the emphasis on standardized testing in the admission process creates opportunity for students who are disproportionately from higher-classes and primarily white or Asian (Shanley, 2007). Strong correlation between SAT scores and incomeJames 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 While the SAT was originally created to increase diversity and review applicants fairly, Table 1 shows that there is a direct relationship between family income and average SAT scores. As shown in the chart, students who come from families with an income of 40,000 dollars or less average less than 480 points on all three sections of the SAT. Meanwhile students who come from families which make more than 200,000 dollars per year, average nearly 560 points or higher in all three sections of the SAT. This discrepancy is a clear indicator of the socio-economic biases within the SAT exam. In order to evaluate the intelligence of students from different cultures, intelligence must be measured using the same level of 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 (Barnett, 2011). SAT test is an indicator of SES and limits college access for underrepresented classesJames 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 The SAT was originally intended to promote access to colleges and universities across the country, but it has actually alienated students based on cultural biases and socio-economic class. The SAT was originally created by the combined work of Harvard president James Conant and the Educational Testing Services (ETS) and was designed to create equity while evaluating individual applicants from across the country (Lemann, 1999).The perceived value of the SAT, from the perspective of college admissions professionals, is that the test results allow colleges to compare, and better assess, the academic potential of students from different parts of the county, school systems, and academic institutions. In actuality, the test has become an indicator of socio-economic status and has had a limiting effect on college access for underrepresented populations1.
Joseph 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 All of this is done for tests (SAT and ACT) that are less valuable than the high school transcript for an admissions officer’s ability to estimate how well a youth will do in college. Rather than leveling the playing field, these tests reinforce social disparities: women score lower than men, but earn higher college grades; there is a linear relation between family income and test score that does not exist for high school grades; and the racial disparities in test scores are a constant source of controversy. White and affluent students perform best on the SATJoseph 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 More disturbing than the SAT’s small statistical contribution is its significant social cost. If we employ SAT scores to set the limits of our qualified applicant pool, rather than rely on HSGPA, we end up selecting from candidates who are overwhelmingly white and affluent. The social case against the SAT is that racial and socioeconomic status disparities are transmitted by the test. As the NACAC report on admissions states, “test scores appear to calcify differences based on class, race/ ethnicity, and parental educational attainment” (NACAC, 2008, p. 11). Many researchers attribute the test’s fossilizing effects to its correlation with family socioeconomic status. The SAT appears to be a more reliable proxy for privilege than for college performance. As noted in a 2007 report from Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), SAT I Verbal and Math scores exhibit a strong, positive relationship with measures of socioeconomic status (SES) such as family income, parents’ education and the academic ranking of a student’s high school, whereas HSGPA is only weakly associated with such measures. As a result, standardized admissions tests tend to have greater adverse impact than HSGPA on underrepresented minority students, who come disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds. (Geiser & Santelices 2007, p. 2) SAT-sensitive admissions reduce all types of social diversity. Soares, Joseph A. (2011-09-30). SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions (Kindle Locations 251-256). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition. Wealthy kids can afford SAT prepJohn Aubrey Douglas, 2013, Douglas is Fellow in the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Conditions for Admission: Access, Equity, and the Social Contract of Public Universities (2007). Soares, Joseph A. (2011-09-30). SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions, Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition, page number at the end of card Opponents of the widespread use of the SAT have long claimed that the SAT promotes needless socioeconomic stratification. The test favors students from upper income families and communities, in part because they can afford a growing range of expensive commercially available test preparation courses and counseling. Soares, Joseph A. (2011-09-30). SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions (Kindle Locations 1123-1125). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition. Affluence ties to high scoresCharles Murray, 2013, Charles Murray is the W. H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, DC. He is a co-author (with Richard J. Herrnstein) of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994). Soares, Joseph A. (2011-09-30). SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions, Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition, page number at the end of card It makes no difference, however, that the charges about coaching are wrong, just as it makes no difference that the whole idea that rich parents can buy their children high SAT scores is wrong. One part of the indictment is true, and that one part overrides everything else: the children of the affluent and well educated really do get most of the top scores. For example, who gets the coveted scores of 700 and higher, putting them in the top half-dozen percentiles of SAT test-takers? Extrapolating from the 2006 data on means and standard deviations reported by the College Board (2006, Table 11), about half of the 700 + scores went to students from families making more than $ 100,000 per year. But the truly consequential statistics are these: approximately 90% of the students with 700 + scores had at least one parent with a college degree; over half had a parent with a graduate degree. Soares, Joseph A. (2011-09-30). SAT Wars: The Case for Test-Optional College Admissions (Kindle Locations 1644-1647). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition. 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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