Comments on SAT Scores Drop, Gaps Grow

• Amplification of Error
• Posted by David Eubanks , Dir. Exotic Plumbing and Xenomorphs on August 26, 2009 at 7:45am EDT

• For some ideas about the wider scope of this effect, see my blog post here:
  http://highered.blogspot.com/2009/08/assesment-and-amplification-of-error.html

• Why
• Posted by JAS&LDB-Penn GSE, CLASS of 2009 , Students at University on August 26, 2009 at 10:30am EDT

• A few months ago, President Obama called for more Americans to attend college and proclaimed that we will lead the world in education achievement. This claim was orated at a time when the country was going through one of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. (Most economists stated that this recession is coming to an arrest, however, job placement is still slow). A major effect of this recession was the deletion of many summer programs and college prep programs around the country. Yesterday’s College Board report on who is taking the SAT revealed that the most students of color in history are participating in taking the SAT. Today’s Inside Higher Ed article shows us that many of these students are still unprepared for the test. We need to keep thinking about the notion that pushing more money into Pell Grants and decreasing monies for gap programs has the potential to serve as a detriment to our students, shattering their academic confidence. There needs to be more focused energy on a holistic approach to our education problem, which includes programs that address achievement gaps. In addition, we’ve got to start talking more about how class issues as well as race change achievement levels. The bottom line is that standardized test scores are not the sole predictor of academic ability, but we all know schools are often unable/ or refuse to operate in a system that takes this fact into consideration.

• SAT Scores Reflect Societal Trends
• Posted by BrokeHarvardGrad at Unasked Advice on August 26, 2009 at 2:00pm EDT

• US News had an article written by the owner/director of the SAT Testing group, and the owner was saying that research shows no culturally reflected bias in minority test scores. It appears as though the SAT group wants to portray the image of fair-minded and balanced testing proponents, but they fail to acknowledge that cultural bias exists in the standardized testing pools once you get past the most rudimentary math questions requiring the figuring of sums. Standardized tests may be normed on groups that supposedly have "representative minority respondents," but that doesn't mean the answers weren't chosen by someone with his or her own cultural bias. The tests are merely a reflection of a dominant social pattern, whereby those who have the dominant social position write the tests, write the answers for the tests and set testing parameters.

• Posted by Informed Reader on August 26, 2009 at 4:15pm EDT

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  I wish we could see comparisons on SAT scores based on race/ethnicity and income/parental education. Why don't they publish SAT performance by income and parental education disaggregated by race and ethnicity? These following findings have not changed over the years. We need to know them in order to close the racial/ethnic gaps in SAT scoring, if these gaps can even be narrowed or closed at all. The following facts are damning and unless we address them and find out the true reasons or explanations for their being, nothing will change. Political correctness prevents the academic community from finding the causes of these test score gaps.

  Some facts on SAT scoring and race/ethnicity have not changed over the years:
  http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/testing.htm

   

   

   

  FACTS:
  "More SAT data may be found in Appendix B. There, you will discover that Asians mostly sit on top of the heap; that whites, Mexican Americans and blacks follow in that order. Some details prove interesting. For example, whites enjoy a verbal advantage over Asians that disappears at high levels of income and social advantage. Regrettably, the College Board no longer discloses these data. In 1996, they stopped publishing performance by income and parental education disaggregated by race and ethnicity."
  Black children from the wealthiest families have mean SAT scores lower than white children from families below the poverty line.

   

  Black children of parents with graduate degrees have lower SAT scores than white children of parents with a high-school diploma or less.

   

   

   

  From The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, http://www.jbhe.com/latest/index012209_p.html:

   

  "But income differences explain only part of the racial gap in SAT scores. For black and white students from families with incomes of more than $200,000 in 2008, there still remains a huge 149-point gap in SAT scores. Even more startling is the fact that in 2008 black students from families with incomes of more than $200,000 scored lower on the SAT test than did students from white families with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000.
  *But the fact is that even when family income levels are similar, we are still comparing black and white students who are as different as apples and oranges in terms of educational sophistication, family educational heritage, family wealth, and access to educational tools and resources. The average white family in the same income group is far better equipped than the average black family to prepare their children for success on the SAT test."*

• Posted by Lisa on August 26, 2009 at 6:15pm EDT

• Informed reader: thank you for calling our attention to the need for better disaggregated data. Yet I am compelled to thank Scott heartily for including the income-level chart above--for I have seen no other such table in ANY of the mainstream media columns today. Perhaps if we were to see more presentations like this one, there would be greater pressure for better data.

• Posted by Mike on August 27, 2009 at 10:30am EDT

• The questions used in the test are statistically pre-tested in order to avoid questions that have a racial bias. Each test includes a section of "pre-test" questions that are not used to calculate the score. College Board evaluates how these questions are answered by different ethnic groups and by gender. If they see differences in the ability to answer the question correctly between these groups of the same score band, e.g. blacks and whites with scores between 1100 - 1200, then they never use the question as a live question in a future test. If there are no such differences between ethnicity / gender, then the question is used. Because of this scientific approach it would be very difficult for questions with a bias to appear on the test. (the above is in addition to manually reviewing questions for bias by review panels)

• how can the math test has racial/gender/culture bias?
• Posted by lchen , curious reader at curious reader on August 27, 2009 at 12:00pm EDT

• I read some comments that talk about some test problems has racial or culture bias.

  Could someone give an example of a math problem that has racial bias? I am fascinated that a math test could be biased, I couldn't think of an example of that.

• Press Release headline is telling
• Posted by justaguy , parent & taxpayer on August 28, 2009 at 7:30am EDT

• "2009 College-Bound Seniors Are Most Diverse Group Ever to Take SAT® As More Minority Students Prepare for Higher Education"

  So reads the headline of CollegeBoard's press release. It makes me wonder whether the SAT is about measuring intellectual preparedness for college or measuring demographic change. Oh, by the way, mentions paragraph four, the aggregate reading and math scores are unchanged over the last 10 years, (math up 4, reading down 4).

  "The number of Hispanic testers over 10 years has more than doubled." During the same period of time Hispanic enrollment is high school has increased 65%. Demographics alone will allow CollegeBoard to continue using "Most Diverse Group Ever" in its headlines for the next 10 years.

  As the marketing arm of an association of "schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations" CollegeBoard has its work cut out for it in the next 5 years as high school enrollment levels off after double digit growth in the past 10 years. The only way it can keep its member institutions fully employed is by increasing participation of minority groups, but CollegeBoard realized this years ago. There is less altruism than meets the eye.

• Scores in the 500s?
• Posted by marya on August 28, 2009 at 4:15pm EDT

• Sorry, I must have missed something. We are learning that high school students, almost ready to graduate, cannot, on average, do better than scores in the low 500s (or below!) on 800-point tests, after 11 or 12 years of schooling? And it's because of ethnic diversity? So we are graduating students with average scores of, effectively, 62-64% (a failing grade on a classroom exam, by the way, with "average" scores considered those in the 70s). Does anyone other than me find this embarrassing, and the ethnic spin on it absolutely shameful?

• Posted by auderey on August 28, 2009 at 8:30pm EDT

• marya, the SAT scores run 200-800, so it's not correct to say that a 500 is a 62%. in fact, scores are normed (and have been adjusted regularly over the life of the SAT) so that a 500 is the median score: we should expect most students to score a 500, and when that average changes, we should expect to see College Board do another norming.

• Posted on August 29, 2009 at 5:45pm EDT

• SAT is SAT, please don't attempt to politicize or over-analyze it. As long as everybody is subject to the same test, same standard, then the results are valid. Mandatory equalization of college admission will only lower the academic standards. It has created discontent among the college candidates. Involuntary and free education has been provided to every body up to K12. That is enough of tax burden.

• Posted by Greg on August 31, 2009 at 12:00pm EDT

• Ichen, an example of a math problem with racial or economic overtures would be any story problem that starts out with: " While shopping at Sach's...." Another might be to explain/determine the gear ratio's on a ten speed bike. or define Love in a tennis match. The reverse would be eating at the dollar menu at Micky Dee's, or a problem concerning financing a new car during the "clunker" program. The math itself is not the problem, it is all the reading and relating to figure out what the math questions are. Same with the reading and writing samples.

  Greg

• Medians
• Posted by marya on September 1, 2009 at 9:00am EDT

• Thanks, Auderey, for the statistical clarification. In other words, you are saying that 500, the median score, is at 50% of the assessment range between 200 and 800, and that this is what is expected, and not as a minimum either. Forgive me, but I really don't know whether to laugh or cry.