Bob Schaeffer of FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testingsent me a note and a chart related to the AJC story on how closely Georgia's SAT scores align with family income. The FairTest chart draws from the College Board's College-Bound Seniors 2013: Total Group Profile Report and College-Bound Seniors 2006: Total Group Profile Report. (I could not drop this chart into the earlier SAT blog entry so I am creating a new one but this relates to our earlier discussion today.)
Here is what Schaeffer had to say about the chart:
The SAT is -- if nothing else -- a strong measure of accumulated opportunity. Kids born into economically comfortable families have incredible advantages from the moment of their conception: adequate maternal nutrition and prenatal care; a much higher probability of normal birth weight; homes with less exposure to allergens, pesticides, heavy metals, etc.; parents who read to them and use rich vocabularies; regular medical checkups and intervention; quality day care; good neighborhood schools; nearby libraries and other cultural institutions; access to tutoring and test prep; etc. All have been linked to higher test scores.
Given this sharply unequal access to factors long-proven to improve test performance, no one should be surprised that kids from high-income families do better on the SAT (and ACT). The societal problem arises when test scores are used to predict the capacity to do college level academic work, not look back at accumulated opportunity.
Admissions offices that rely heavily on standardized exams end up skewing an already biased system more in favor of teenagers who grew up in well-to-do homes, even though ample research shows that applicants with high grades but lower test scores can do as well or better.
Added to that inequity, many schools use SAT/ACT results to award so-called "merit scholarships," which, given the link between test scores and family income, guarantees that the most tuition aid will go to kids who need it the least.
No wonder so many colleges -- particularly the more competitive ones -- enroll very few kids from low-income families.
Maureen Downey is a longtime reporter for the AJC where she has written editorials and opinion pieces about local, state and federal education policy for 12 years.
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