The SAT is BIAS!

Test Preparation
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<p>There is nothing scarier for a high school student than taking the SAT, a dreadful 4 hour long test, and knowing that it can make or break their chances of getting into college. I still remember to this day the feeling of sitting in a cold room with only the sound of scribbling pencils and the ticking of the clock echoing off the walls. There were 1,647,123 other students who taking the same test as I did (Goldman), but only a selected few would get accepted to the college of their choice. So, where did this competitive test, feared by so many students, originated from? It all started in 1900 when the College Entrance Examination Board was established to help colleges simply and accurately assess their applicants based on intelligence and not on financial advantages ("The History of SAT"). It seemed like a great reform at the moment, but as the test continued to be nationally distributed and relied on, further research and findings have leaked some of its deficiencies. A big flaw that the Scholastic Assessment Test seems to have is that it favors and suppresses certain groups of people, which makes it bias in several ways: financially bias, sexist, and racist.</p>

<p>One of such groups of individuals is the poor, who finds great difficulty in keeping up with their wealthier counterparts. According to Laura Sellers, a well-established writer of The Chronicles, “SAT scores increase with every additional $10,000 earned by the test-takes’ family” (Sellers). This statistical finding seemed too ironic, since the SAT's purpose was to break college entrances away from favoring students with rich backgrounds. In America, education is given to all kids from kindergarten to 12th grade and taught by professionally approved teachers working in a state approved school. By the time these students reach their senior year, they should all be equally skilled in algebra one, comprehensive reading, and writing essays, which are skills tested on the SAT. With this in mind, the big scoring gap between the poor and the wealthy is making many educators question the reliability of the SAT. College Board, an organization that oversees and distributes the SAT, and other organizations are creating a monopoly off the SAT by offering private preparation courses and practice materials. Big companies such as Princeton Review and Kaplan charge more than $800 for these courses, promising to raise SAT scores by up to 200 points (Grabmeier). For schools and families with money to spare on extra courses for their child, these students are taught test taking strategies and familiarity to the format of the test. Some test taking strategies that the student learns are when to guess, how to skip hard problems, and how to read the questions before reading the passages. Financially deficient students are now put at a disadvantage and the SAT then becomes not a measure of aptitude in college, but a measure of how well a student knows how the test works. Several colleges use the SAT as a ranking system to admit students with the highest SAT score, believing in its accuracy to assess students on their aptitude for college. However, Professor Claudia Buchmann and her other colleagues from Ohio State University conducted a study that showed that students who took private SAT preparation courses scored an average of 60 points higher than those who did not take the courses (Grabmeier). In the end, the SAT just contradicted itself by favoring wealthy students who have learned their way through the test.</p>

<p>In addition to being financially bias, the SAT also proved itself to be sexist by favoring boys and their ability to take risks. In 1995, the University of California in Berkeley observed that “females with identical academic indexes as males earned higher grades in every subject including math and physical sciences”, yet these girls continue to scored considerably lower than boys on the SAT (Perry “The SAT Math Test: It’s Rigged…”). Another statistical data then presented that even though girls outnumber boys in GPA ranking, the ratio of perfect scores between boys and girls is 2.22 to 1(“Perry "More on the Gender Gap…”). These observations complement the Educational Testing Service’s findings that “girls’ SAT scores improved dramatically when the time limit was removed while boys’ scores remained about the same”. From these figures we can conclude that the test is definitely evaluating something other than real knowledge that is learned in school. Many educators have even suggested adding 140 points to women’s index because the SAT degrades their intellectual ability (Perry “The SAT Math Test: It’s Rigged…”) and some theorize that these differences are the result of an evolutionary disparity between girls and boys. By nature, boys are riskier than girls because of their tendency to overestimate their abilities and their addiction to adrenaline rushes. Girls on the other hand have a different flux of hormones and amygdala structure than boys, thus contributing to their sensitivity to emotions; considerably fear (Mcbride 2). Since test taking skills include knowing when to guess, it becomes evident that boys are the better test takers, furthermore, it shows that the multiple choice format of the SAT is favorable to boys and fails to accurately assess intelligence between genders.</p>

<p>Likewise, the SAT also fails to assess intelligence between different ethnicities, favoring Caucasians and suppressing African-Americans and Hispanics. Since 1988, researchers have collected SAT averages between different ethnicities and found that Whites’ SAT averages had been hovering above Blacks’ averages by nearly 200 points from 1988 to 2005 ("The Widening Racial Scoring Gap...”). Moreover, in 2010, Hispanic students’ average score for both the critical reading and math section were behind the national average by about 60 to 50 points ("What Are the Average Scores…”). It could be the cultural differences that make specific questions become advantageous to the White community and difficult for minorities. To eliminate any lurking variables that might have an influence on SAT scores, a controlled experiment was conducted, testing Hispanic and White students with identical educational background and GPA. The results showed that White students still achieved a higher average compared to Hispanic students (Nieli). With all lurking variables eliminated and the score differences between ethnicities still present, the SAT is definitely putting some sort of disadvantage on minorities just like Hispanics.</p>

<p>These bias are a serious problem, considering that the Scholastic Assessment Test is a single test that is trusted by thousands of colleges and taken by millions of students. It is not only distributed in America, but internationally, to foreign students hoping to find higher education in America. Nevertheless, the SAT is failing to serve its initial purpose by being financially bias, sexist, and racist. By looking at statistical data, controlled experimentations, and the background of the SAT, we have come to learn that this “fair” test is actually full of flaws and biases that favor wealthy White men. There are several reasons to this issue but some of the more obvious ones are the expensive SAT preparation courses, the evolutionary differences between men and women, and the cultural differences between Whites and minorities. These problems cannot persist and the best solution seems to be eliminating the SAT itself, which was created solely on the reason that not all schools are at an equal quality of education. The nation therefore needed some sort of system for ranking the student’s aptitude for college success. But is math and English the only thing needed for college success? No, there are more influential qualities such as ambition, persistence, critical thinking, social abilities, optimism, creativity, and many others that all contribute to helping a person do well in college. With the SAT gone, these qualities will be given a greater chance to stand out in essays and teacher recommendations. Even success in high school that are shown through GPA and extracurricular activities, fostered from four years of hard word, shows much more about a student’s potential then a four hour test ever could. Along with this, eliminating the SAT would also mean that the money spent on distributing them can finally be used to assist the specific schools that are struggling to better educate their students. With all of these benefits— reducing bias, promoting more critical qualities, and providing resources for schools in need—this solution will bring a new and better change to the word “college entrance examination”.</p>

<p>References:</p>

<p>Goldman, Jeff. "Number of Students Taking SAT Increases, Average Score Drops | Schools.com." Schools.com. Schools.com, 15 Sept. 2011. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://www.schools.com/news/number-of-students-taking-sat-is-up-scores-are-down.html"&gt;http://www.schools.com/news/number-of-students-taking-sat-is-up-scores-are-down.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Grabmeier, Jeff. "SAT Test Prep Tools Give Advantage To Students From Wealthier Families." OSU Research News. Ohio State University, 7 Aug. 2006. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/satprep.htm"&gt;http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/satprep.htm&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>"The History of SAT." Eduers.com. The Eduers Higher Education, 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://www.eduers.com/sat/history_of_sat.htm"&gt;http://www.eduers.com/sat/history_of_sat.htm&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>McBride, Bill. Girls Will Be Girls and Boys Will Be Boys. New York: Incentive Publications, 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.</p>

<p>Nieli, Russell K. "How Diversity Punishes Asians, Poor Whites and Lots of Others." Minding the Campus. Center for the American University, 12 July 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/07/how_diversity_punishes_asians.html"&gt;http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/07/how_diversity_punishes_asians.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Perry, Mark J. "More on the Gender Gap for SAT Math Test Scores." Blog Spot. CARPE DIEM, 23 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-on-gender-gap-for-sat-math-test.html"&gt;http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-on-gender-gap-for-sat-math-test.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Perry, Mark J. "The SAT Math Test: It's Rigged to Favor Boys?" Blog Spot. CARPE DIEM, 10 June 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/06/sat-math-test-rigged-to-favor-boys.html"&gt;http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/06/sat-math-test-rigged-to-favor-boys.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Sellers, Laura. "Column: Sinking the SAT." The Chronicle. Duke University, 8 Mar. 2001. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://dukechronicle.com/article/column-sinking-sat"&gt;http://dukechronicle.com/article/column-sinking-sat&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>"What Are The Average Scores for Students Taking the SAT?" National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education, 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171"&gt;http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

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<p>must have taken you a long time to write this… i agree! but it is definitely hard to find a consensus about determining which colleges you go to. nice post!</p>

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<p>Hahaha this is such BS. How is the math section partial towards boys. If anything the SAT is bias toward girls. I can’t tell you how many feminists passages I have read on the critical reading. It seems like there almost one every test. Also, there are two reading/english passages and only one math passage, and boys tend to be better at math and worse at english, so this would inherently favor women.</p>

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<p>You need standardized tests, because otherwise, there is no way for colleges to compare someone with an A average from School X in Iowa to someone with an A average from School Y in New York City.</p>

<p>Whenever I see some kid on CC say that they are valecdictorian of their school, but only have a 29 ACT, it becomes clear that their academic accomplishments at their school is very suspect.</p>

<p>My kid got 800 verbal, 800 writing, 700 math, and is only at the top 5% in his school. His SAT scores, in my view, show that he would probably be a valecdictorian at some high schools in this country.</p>

<p>Further, your logic is flawed. Just because rich kids get better SAT scores than poor kids does not mean there is bias or unfair advantage. </p>

<p>A child whose two parents are doctors is likely to be naturally smarter than a child of two parents who work as ditch diggers, at least most of the time.</p>

<p>And how can a math test be sexually or racially biased?.</p>

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<p>The first 2 parts may be somewhat true, but I doubt the race thing is. Yes, maybe the whites have done better than the Hispanics or blacks. But does this talk about Asians? This just means that the cultures might have certain importance on certain things. Asians are known to be from hard-working families, so that they study hard. Of course, this isn’t always the case. I’m not saying that white people are smarter or anything, but they do better because they happen to, not because it’s racially biased. Besides, college (other than community college) IS biased…it weeds out the lesser in favor of the better, so it has to be. And so what if that means higher concentration of whites and Asians? Race shouldn’t matter AT ALL. When looking at a college, WHY do you need to know if the campus is “racially diverse?” I understand gender somewhat, because of dating opportunities. Although some might argue that this doesn’t matter, either, but animal species are sexually driven, and many get married to someone that they met in college. As for the money, you know what they never judge? Parent involvement. It’s not fair because those that have involved parents tend to do better, too, so are we going to based everything the SAT stands for on how much mommy and daddy cares about their offspring? That seems even worse.</p>

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<p>What is the purpose of your essay? Is it simply an opinion piece that cites to other unoriginal work by other authors? I don’t see the point. You simply regurgitate someone else’s opinions/advocacy positions.</p>

<p>General comments on your essay:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Higher income in families may be positively correlated with higher SAT scores. But, the correlation can simply be a result of education being more highly valued in the high income families. If education is highly valued there is more emphasis put by parents in ensuring that students are diligent in their studies. If that were the case why should those students be penalized? BTW - students generally improve their SAT scores by taking it twice (they become more experienced with testing strategies after taking both the PSAT and SAT). It is not necessary to pay extra money for private tutoring.</p></li>
<li><p>Sexist? Ha. Women greatly outnumber men in obtaining college degrees. If anything K-12 is biased in favor of girls. If we skew SAT scores with a 140pt adder for girls then even less boys will be attending college. While some feminists will think that appropriate they will be really upset 10-20 years down the line when all of the social implications come home to roost. Imagine the day when women no longer have the choice to stay home with kids or work. The only choice will be work because the men are less educated and can’t earn enough. The social issues facing black women will mainstreamed.</p></li>
<li><p>Assessing intelligence - Even the SAT organization says that the SAT score has nothing to do with intelligence. It simply measures what you have learned (or at least how much of that learning you have retained). GPA comparisons between school districts are meaningless. One way to eliminate biased GPA comparisons is to use a standardized test, e.g., the SAT or ACT. Almost every college says that they don’t base admissions on only one factor. They include GPA, extracurricular activities, recommendations as well as the SAT.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>BTW - I’m not an English major but you may want to have someone help you review syntax, grammar etc. For example, the SAT is not “BIAS” it’s “BIASED”. A “selected” few or a “select” few.</p>

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<p>Re racial bias. </p>

<p>People don’t think that there is racial bias in the SAT because they overlook one fact. We are not all the same. Our abilities are inherited and evolved as a whole human race, and between different ethnic groups. Whites have been educated far longer and at “better” schools than blacks as Hispanics, so obviously whites would be “innately” “better” at academia. Blacks and Hispanics JUST (re mid 1900s) won the right to be educated alongside whites in a general consensus throughout America, and even more so later. Do you think that scientifically this could be a reason? No, people always try to throw that “we’re all equal and have the same opportunities” BS. And still so today, more whites attend “better” schools in K-12 and college(I’m emphasizing K-12) than minority students. </p>

<p>Obviously there are intelligent people in every ethnic group, some that “surpass the intelligence” of others from other groups. Certain ethnic groups aren’t “smarter” than others, they’ve just been being educated, and educated better, than other groups. </p>

<p>People don’t think that this could contribute to the cause of disparity among whites and minorities.</p>

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<p>Let me speak to the bias of the SAT test. My son got a 2300. </p>

<p>On the ACT, he got a 34, with corresponds almost exactly to the 2300.</p>

<p>So I guess that means the ACT is biased too? It’s a different test, but your presumption is that the ACT would obviously be biased too.</p>

<p>Stop blaming the test.</p>

<p>The previous posters have given numerous reasons why your reasoning is flawed. You decry the fact that rich people do better than poor people, but isn’t it logical to assume that many of the people in this country in the top one percent income range are probably very smart genetically? Heart surgeons. Nuclear engineers. Harvard Law School graduates.</p>

<p>As for girls being discriminated against because they supposedly need a longer period of time to take tests, there has to be some sort of time limit on the test. Obviously, if you spent a week taking the test, you would do better than if you only had a few hours. An engineering school wants someone who can do math problems reasonably quickly, and who doesn’t have to spend an hour on each problem.</p>

<p>As for unequal educational opportunities, I read that under Bush’s No Child Left Behind, schools set up free tutoring programs for minority students, but few of such students bothered to attend. Some racial groups simply may put more emphasis on education, such as asians and jews. Also, while private SAT prep courses are expensive, buying the book of practice exams at Barnes & Noble, and doing the practice tests, is not. </p>

<p>Also, why do you discount what may be the obvious answer----the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about----namely, that some racial groups may be better at some things than others. For example, African Americans make up 10% of the population, but probably 90% of the NBA, and more than 10% of the stars in certain other fields. And asians, who are not well represented in the NBA, all over the world, seem to do better in math tests than caucasians too. Jews make up 1% of the world population but get about 33% of the nobel prizes. Is the nobel prize biased just because jews do better than african americans? Just because you don’t like the results doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with the tests.</p>

<p>And if the test is biased from a socio-economic standpoint, the answer is not to get rid of the test, but rather, to help minorities take it.</p>

<p>Other countries like India, and South Korea, place even more emphasis on standardized tests than America does.</p>

<p>My son got great test scores, and I assure you, he is brilliant, and was recognized as being brilliant by all who came into contact with him as early as age 2. To my dismay, he basically blew up the SAT prep course I signed him up for.</p>

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<p>hahahahahahahahahahahaha. this is all garbage. girls study more so have higher gpas, but are obviously less naturally intelligent so have lower sat scores. its not “biased” against them lol b/c they dont do as well as boys. and maybe the anti-educational environment blacks and latinos live in produces less intelligent ppl. the only thing that true is that ppl with money cud get tutors and that deifnetly helps. but theres nothing more practical than the sat in measuring intelligence currently, so get over it.</p>

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<p>What college does your son go to?</p>

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<p>^how can someone be brilliant with a measly 700 in math. I took it in 7th grade and got higher than that and I would not consider myself anywhere near a genius…</p>

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<p>CPU:</p>

<p>In my opinion, you are just reciting politically correct dogma. </p>

<p>I say this because poor asians who go to dangerous inner city high schools alongside other ethnic minorities seem to always rise to the top of their class. Why is it so hard to simply acknowledge that asians as a group may indeed be genetically smarter than whites, blacks, and hispanics? Indeed, some of it is cultural, but not all of it.</p>

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<p>Florida dad that’s what I was saying. Genetics. Yes poor Asian kids can still rise to the top of their class. As can poor whites more so than poor blacks and Hispanics. Genetics evolve over time. I don’t want to restate what I said earlier, but that’s all tied to genetics. </p>

<p>That’s never brought up in discussions about this. </p>

<p>If history was racially flip-flopped, I guarantee you will still see a racial imbalance, but with minorities on “top” and whites on “bottom”. Also looking at where each race comes from. European countries/Asian countries have had rigorous education systems far longer than African/carribean/Hispanic countries have.</p>

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<p>Sheep Get Killed:</p>

<p>Correction.</p>

<p>I meant my son is brilliant in non-math non science subjects.</p>

<p>800 CR
800 writing</p>

<p>Four 5’s on AP courses in non-math, non-science subjects, and two 4’s.</p>

<p>He was reading at about age 4. And at age 3, he had whole Dr. Seuss books memorized, to the extent that my mother, when she visited us, THOUGHT he was actually reading.</p>

<p>He did not get double 800’s merely because the SAT was biased in his favor. Intelligent people do well on the SAT and the ACT. And so-called “A” students in high school, who do not do well when they take standardized tests, do not like the fact that their “charade” has been exposed. </p>

<p>By the way, before their was a writing section, I took the SATs, and got a 1200, so my viewpoints on this issue indict myself. </p>

<p>I do not buy for a minute those kids who are valecdictorian of their class but only get a 28 on their ACT, and explain it away because they are not “good test takers”. Most of these kids would be in the middle of the pack at a top private high school in New England, and the standardized test results expose this. Hence, the movement to get rid of or minimize standardized tests at some colleges, so they can instead apply subjective admission criteria, and thereby reach their desired admission results.</p>

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<p>Valedictorian from my school last year had low test scores but was perfectly smart… She may not have aced the SAT/ACT, but ended up doing well in terms of college admissions anyway. She is at Columbia now.</p>

<p>Year before that the val didn’t score that great either (2000 or so) and got into dartmouth. These scores aren’t an indictment of your self-worth but a mere measure of how well you can sit down and fill in bubbles for 4 hours.</p>

<p>By the way this is coming from someone who got 2250 and 2400 on SAT/SATII respectively.</p>

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<p>Loresel:</p>

<p>Let’s assume for the sake of argument that you are right, and the SAT is biased against minorities.</p>

<p>What you have failed to point out in your post is that colleges in effect take this into account, by holding minorities, by and large, to lower SAT and ACT requirements, then let’s say, asians or whites.</p>

<p>So take the ACT. If the middle 50% range at a particular college is a score of 31-34, minorities often only need to get a 31. So in essence, minorities are given “extra points”.</p>

<p>Thus, even if your argument is 100% true, which I don’t believe, for various reasons already mentioned by previous message posters, it is essentially irrelevant from a practical standpoint.</p>

<p>Right?</p>

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<p>@Loresel Why do you assume that just because certain ethnicities score higher than others, the SAT must be biased? Have you considered that maybe some races are just genetically smarter than others or more studious? </p>

<p>The overall theme I’m seeing in your post is that the SAT should be a measure of a student’s inherent and natural ability rather than hard work and hours and hours of study. However, you fail to realize that massive amounts of study is almost necessary to succeed in college and is crucial to success. Some kids that score 2300+ devote weeks to study. So you’re saying that they don’t deserve that score and the SAT is biased, simply because they study much more than other ethinicities, blacks and hispanics for example?</p>

<p>In any case, Affirmative action exists for these very “flaws.” I don’t agree with affirmative action, but colleges understand the cultural differences in SAT test takers and try to compensate for those at a disadvantage.</p>

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<p>I would use the term studious and not smart. I think we can all agree the SAT doesn’t test how smart you are, because smartness is really an aggregate of so many qualities, and no one test could ever quantify these things. </p>

<p>And yes asians are more studious than blacks, on the whole.</p>

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<p>I think what people don’t really realize is that being a black and coming from a high income bracket doesn’t really give any benefits at the top-most tier schools (perhaps a bit lower down the ladder, like at Tufts for example it helps though). I know this is just a case example, but one AA female, from a privileged background (~300k income) from our school who wasn’t up to snuff academically applied to Yale regardless, because she figured her race would compensate for her lackluster academics/EC/etc… She ended up getting rejected.</p>

<p>They really only give points to the kids who didn’t have time to study for these tests because they had more important things to do, like support their families financially. Surely we can all agree that putting food on the table is more important than filling in bubbles correctly.</p>

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<p>CPU:</p>

<p>Why is it relevant that Europe has had better education systems than Africa for 500 years?.</p>

<p>That is environmental.</p>

<p>A newborn baby doesn’t know or care about that. The newborn baby has natural intelligence, given to him by genetics. Try as you might, you could not have turned me into a concert pianist, because I did not have the genetic ability, no matter how hard I practiced.</p>