To get into most places of higher education in America you need to have applied for, paid, and taken a college board test of some kind. These tests can either be the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the ACT which used to be known by as American College Testing. These tests are the source of much unneeded and undeserved stress for thousands of students across the united states every year. The idea of needing to take a test may seem straightforward on the outside due to all of the standardized testing inside of the school system, but if you take a close look on the inside you will see that there are a few things that are out of place in this world of testing.
The SAT was first taken in nineteen twenty six according to the Manhattan Review which is extremely close to the period of time when public schooling was becoming mandated across the united states. According to an article from National Archives “school attendance was not only compulsory but the school leaving age was raised from 12 to 14 years old” which makes these tests almost as old as basic schooling in America.
For as old as these tests are, especially the SAT, they still have some bugs and kinks that it needs to work out. One of the most pressing topics of discussion amongst critics of these tests and standardized testing in general is the idea that their questions are biased toward Richer groups of people rather than toward most of the people taking these tests. One example of these biases in questions comes from a test given to students in the nineteen eighties which may seem like a long time ago but is more than fifty years after the creation of the test.
This question represented by the image below, found through a website called Clear Choice Prep, shows the strange and oddly biased state of these questions and how they are more skewed toward the more affluent side of the population taking these tests. According to this same source the answer is C and fifty three percent of white test takers answered correctly while only twenty two percent of black test takers answered correctly.
While question bias is a subject that hits home to many people, the subject we are looking at here more in depth is how not race, but how socioeconomic status can negatively affect the ending score of the test. The college board put out a scoring result sheet pregnant with statistics about how people from different backgrounds had done on the SAT. These statistics cover the different portions of the test whether they be the critical reading, mathematics, or writing section all the stats are there. Using these statistics, we can see exactly how the test score is presumably affected by the family income of the test taker.
According to the college board on this chart, the average test score of all takers of the test for reading was four hundred and ninety-four, five hundred and eight, and four hundred and eighty-two for reading, mathematics, and writing respectively. The test takers that scored the lowest of all applicants were those whose family had an income of less than twenty thousand dollars. This number increases, without fail, until we reach the above two hundred thousand mark.
The statistics on the college board report sheet add evidence to the idea that these families with more resources are wealthy enough to compete at an advantage when compared to the more disadvantaged students taking this test. These families are more able to provide more testing preparations for their children as well as having more means to bypass these tests outright.
Now not all affluent and privileged families buy their way through the testing system or bribe testing officials to give them more time to take these tests there have been a nasty few who have bribed their way into getting their children better scores on their tests. According to a New York Times post on this matter states “prosecutors have charged 33 wealthy parents, they have not charged any students” which can show us that in this situation it is not the students’ fault, it is the parents’ fault. These situations only have occurred and been found when the parents of these students are extremely wealthy, ala famous actress or successful fancier wealthy. It does show us that there are ways, specifically of the morally dubious variety, that you can avoid testing through abusing accumulated wealth.
The college board is working on ways to attempt to combat these issues, more specifically the issues regarding the socioeconomic problems and how it is more difficult for students facing adversity in their lives. What the college board is planning on doing is considering the adversity they face where they live and learn. These factors contribute to what is called the “Adversity Index” which, according to Inside Higher ED “is a tool designed for admission officers to view a student’s academic accomplishment in the context of where they live and learn” and this tool, according to the source “provides information about the student’s environment. It puts a student’s SAT score and other academic accomplishments included in their college application in the context of where they live and learn” This is a change of pace for the college board who has seemed rather dormant on the uproars about how biased this test is to people of more underprivileged backgrounds.
Brandon's Blog 