Running head: Biases in the SAT

Biases in the SAT Emma A. Goethel Glen Allen High School

Biases in the SAT

Abstract The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was create for the purpose of predicting success in college, yet this process is deeply flawed. Research has proved that the assessment is biased in many way but three main ways; race, income, and gender. Where white students perform better than minorities, students whose families have a higher income perform better than those who dont, and male perform better than females on the test specifically in the math portion. Because of these biases people are beginning to question of it is fair to require this test in the college application process. As a result the College Board is making significant changes to the exam in order to reduce these unfair biases. Although the College Board is making changes to the test there will still be uncontrollable biases that are in the test regardless. Therefore because of this issue the SAT should be optional allowing the college admissions officers to assess the students in a fairer manor.

Biases in the SAT The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) includes various questions within three sections: reading, writing and math, with an additional essay portion. The critical reading portion is sixtyseven multiple choice questions with seventy minutes to complete it. The questions tests reading, diction and vocabulary skills. The questions in this section are based off of a given reading passage or sentence completion questions. In the math section, there are fifty-four questions. Forty-four are multiple choice and 10 are grid-in answers, where the students are required to fill in their numerical answers in a grid, similar to a free response question. These questions test basic arithmetic, algebra I and algebra II, and geometry skills. And finally, the writing section has forty-nine multiple choice questions and an essay portion. It tests the students ability to identify sentence errors, improve sentences and improve paragraphs. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was made for the purpose of predicting the success of students in college (CNN, 2011). The process of using the SAT, in order to predict success in college, is flawed. After research, many found that the SAT was biased in numerous ways. The three main discrepancies found in the test have a correlation with family income, gender and race. With income, those who have a lower family income tend to produce lower test scores than those of wealthier families (Wade, 2012). As for the gender aspect, males tend to do better than females, especially in the math section of the SAT test (Groves, 2001). When it comes to race, minorities, on average, have lower overall scores when compared to white students (Jaschik, 2010). These issues and biases lead to an unfair assessment and an imperfect college acceptance process. Due to these biases in the SAT with race, income, and gender, the test should have less of an impact on the college acceptance process and be an optional assessment. The SAT plays a huge role in the college acceptance process. Every college uses a combination of different factors in order to determine whether a student is admitted or not but

Biases in the SAT one college admission officer, Robert Sternberg of Yale University, admitted that it is easier to look at a test score, in order to determine the students outcome, rather than spend hours reading hundreds of personal statements or teacher recommendations (Balf, 2014). Unfortunately this is precisely why the test creates so much stress. The test plays a higher role in college admissions than some admission officers may want. Either on accident or on purpose for some, it is human nature to judge a student by a number than an essay (Balf, 2014). Another reason why the results of SAT tests are often valued more than other factors is because a test score is a quantitative value. This is commonly viewed as more reliable than the qualitative value of an essay assessment for example. When an essay is being graded it can differ dependent on who is reading and who is doing the grading whereas the test score is static across the board (or at least believed to be). Although test scores may be viewed as more reliable than other factors in the application process the scores should not have as big of an impact that they do on the college acceptance because of the discrepancies in the scores and the disadvantages it holds. This test causes students to have a higher advantage in college acceptance creating a disadvantage for other students. This advantage though is based off of factors nonrelated to school therefore student who succeed in school dont necessarily succeed on the test. If you are a wealthy, white male student you have a higher advantage over any other student when it comes to the SAT regardless of how you perform in school. These biases are the main reason that the SAT should have less of an impact on the college acceptance process. It has been proven that African American students and other minorities, perform lower on the SAT when compared to white students. Jaschik stated the following: The existence of racial patterns on SAT scores is hardly new. The average score on the reading part of the SAT was 429 for black students last year -- 99

Biases in the SAT points behind the average for white students. And while white students' scores were flat, the average score for black students fell by one (2010). This data provides proof of the discrepancy in the scores between whites and minority students and highlights how minority students have the disadvantage. On the SAT each question is graded on a scale of difficulty. They are labeled with easy, medium, or hard difficulty. According to Crain, the questions that are labeled as difficult on the SAT tend to be more correctly answered by black students where as white students tend to answer them incorrectly. On the other hand, as for the questions that are labeled as easy, blacks and minorities tend to answer these incorrectly while white students answer them correctly (2004). This is because of the way the test is made. Most of the people who make the test are well off and white, therefore when creating the easy level questions they choose vocabulary that is prevalent in their society. The difficult vocabulary questions are often easier for black students to answer than the easy level questions because these questions involve vocabulary that is found in textbooks that can be studied rather than societal vocab which cannot. Because of this inconsistency, when test makers are determining which questions need to be removed from the SAT, because they are too difficult, they often choose the ones that the black students answer correctly because those who receive higher test scores (white students) answer these questions incorrectly. In doing this, the test makers are creating an even bigger issue because they are taking away the questions that are equal across the board instead of removing the ones that benefit the white race. Some believe that the differences in scores are because of the overall gap in American society between blacks and whites in education (CNN, 2011). That this gap is caused from the nature of the nation; black students tend to go to schools that are less financially well off. This

Biases in the SAT leads to schools that have fewer resources, supplies; and teachers who arent good at their job and are often unsuccessful. This issue is an obvious factor when it comes to the difference in the scores yet the content of the test does nothing to combat this gap in the nation. In fact, it does the exact opposite as it creates an even bigger gap in the scores instead. The discrepancy of the scores in the SAT test between genders comes from the differences in the male and female brain and the way the two learn. Male brains typically have a larger inferior-parietal lobe, which controls the numerical functions in the brain, therefore making males perform better in math. And female brains are larger in areas of the brain that deal with language, which is why females score higher on the English section of the exam. The largest differences in the scores in the SAT are found in the math section where male students consistently score higher than females. These disparities are thought to be because females often answer the math questions how they are taught in class, doing each individual step in an orderly way just as the teacher has instructed them to, whereas, boys tend to find the easier and faster method to answering the question, skipping over the tedious steps. This allows them to view more of the questions, therefore answering more questions with less of a fear of getting one wrong. The problem with this particular disagreement in scores though, is that the scores do not correlate with the actual results in college. As stated before the SAT is used to predict success in college. Although the scores show that males will perform better than females, females have overall been more successful than males in college. This is found to be true in both elite and community colleges. This issue makes the SAT less credible and leads to people constantly questioning the validity of the test.

Biases in the SAT The third and final major discrepancy is family income. This directly correlates with the success in the SAT test. The more income a family has, the better the child will do on the SAT, as proven through research. These skewed results are thought to be because of the money spent on educational purposes. Parents with a higher income can afford to spend money on their childs education if they are not satisfied with it, while families with a lower income, unfortunately, cannot afford such a luxury. The biggest issue with family income comes from the preparation or lack of preparation of the test not necessarily the content of the test itself. Families that have a higher family income can purchase multiple prep books, more specifically the College Board one, which come out with a new prep book every year. They can also pay for tutors, prep classes, and other resources such as The Princeton Review and Kaplan. These resources not only prepare the students for the knowledge required in the test, but also provide practice tests and sample problems that can be studied and possibly be seen on the real exam. Another source of this difference comes from the quality of schooling as family income increases. Wade states They tend to have better teachers, more resource-rich educational environments, more educated parents who can help them with school and, sometimes, expensive SAT tutoring for those with higher family income (2012). The quality of education the student receives greatly affect the success during the test because the school not only relates to the students knowledge but also many times correlates with the students study habits and motivation to succeed. Similarly to racial biases, this correlation with income could also be due to the social class of the makers of the test. The people who make the test are often privileged individuals, they create questions that sometimes reference class based knowledge without realizing it

Biases in the SAT (Wade, 2012). For example, they could create a question that requires needing to know information about golf rather than a sport that is popular across the board such as basketball (Wade, 2012). This unconscious decision leads to a disadvantage of the lower class because they may only know what is prevalent in their lifestyle and therefore not know anything about the basics of golf. These biases lead to people questioning whether the SAT was a good indication of college success and questioning the validity and the fairness of the test. This resulted in some schools making the assessment an optional exam (Matthews, 2010). Because of this reaction, the College Board began to analyze the test and find the issues that caused these major biases. They used this knowledge to make a new test creating changes that remove some of the major biases in the test. This new version plans on being released for the spring of 2016 (Balf, 2014). One of the major issues they found in the test now is that high scores on the writing portion have little to do with elegant and intelligent writing. The scoring on the writing portion can easily be manipulated to receive high scores. Since 2005, when the College Board added an essay to the SAT (raising the total possible score from 1,600 to 2,400), Perelman had been conducting research that highlighted what he believed were the inherent absurdities in how the essay questions were formulated and scored. His earliest findings showed that length, more than any other factor, correlated with a high score on the essay. More recently, Perelman coached 16 students who were retaking the test after having received mediocre scores on the essay section. He told them that details mattered but factual accuracy didnt. You can tell them the War of 1812 began in 1945, he said. He encouraged them to sprinkle in little-used but fancy words like plethora or myriad and to use two or three preselected quotes from prominent figures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, regardless of whether they were relevant to the question asked. Fifteen of his pupils scored higher than the 90th percentile on the essay when they retook the exam, he said (Balf 2014). These finding highlighted the corruption of the scoring of the writing portion and how easy it is to manipulate your score.

Biases in the SAT Another issue with the writing portion of the test is the question itself. People complain that the questions have nothing to do with real life and one would never be asked such a question in college let alone in the work world. The questions are irrelevant to success in college. For example one might be Is it always essential to tell the truth, or are there some circumstances in which it is better to lie? This question largely benefits those students who are good at coming up with intelligent answers in a short amount of time which it quite difficult for some students. After finding these results the College Board decided to make the essay portion optional in the new version of the SAT test. The new essay questions will consist of a passage and a question. It will follow along the lines of something such as analyze the writing style in the passage and describe how it allows the author to convey his message. This will force the students to provide evidence as to why they answered the way they did, resulting in a more defined scoring guide. It also follows along the lines of something one would be asked to do in the work force or in college. One of the main focuses with the new version of the SAT is what students learn in high school. Rather than testing the students on random topics, the new version will have a central focus of what is taught in school or what will be asked of the student in college or in the work room. It will no longer test ability and intelligence, as the current version of the SAT does, but how can that really be tested (Balf, 2014)? Instead, hard work and achievement in school is finally going to pay off. They hope that these changes will lead to a correlation between grades in school and the scores on the SAT that is defined.

Biases in the SAT One way the SAT will focus on what will be asked of the student in the future is the changes to the math section. It will now focus on three main topics; problem solving, data analysis, and reasoning (Balf, 2014). These topics are the most needed in jobs in todays society. The most beneficial change to the SAT in the spring of 2016 is the partnership they are gaining with an online site that helps students with study questions called Khan Academy (Balf, 2014). This site is a free online website where you can make an account and periodically study material. The site created by a man that in order to help student with homework problems that they were having trouble with. It then flourished into a very popular site so he began to provide videos on multiple topics. He created various video which aided the understanding of certain topics and then also provided questions to practice this knowledge. The College Board asked Sal Khan to create a tutoring program on his site to help students prepare for the SAT. The College Board would provide them with multiple questions while Khan Academy is going to create videos that will also help. This site will benefit those with a lower income who cannot afford paying for the prep books, the tutors, or the prep classes. The student can assign goals on the site and it will provide a tutoring schedule that will help the students reach the goals they have. Although the changes to the SAT will remove some of the biases in the test, regardless of how many changes are made, no test can remove all biases. Whether it is biased in social class and income, gender or race, whether it benefits those who live in a wealthier area, males rather than females, or whites over minorities, there is no way that the College Board can create a test that doesnt have biases. Using a biased test in order

Biases in the SAT to decide whether a student should be accepted into college is an unjust way of predicting a students future and should be frowned upon. It is also proven that high scores on the SAT do not directly correlate to success in college or the work force (Matthews, 2010). In the past when students received low test scores guidance counselor would talk negatively about the students and force the student to retake the test in order to achieve a higher score because of the popular believe that if they dont have a high score they will not succeed in college (Matthews, 2010). But this belief is incorrect because there are a variety of people who received low SAT scores yet still became success both during and after college. This list includes politician such as Senator Bill Bradley, Al Gore, and even George W. Bush (Matthews, 2004). Relying so heavily on the SAT for college acceptance only discourages students who receive low test scores (Matthews, 2004). Many students who have the potential of a successful future but receive a low SAT score become flooded with the ideas that they will not get into college or are not smart enough and therefore start to believe it. This prevents many students from reaching their full potential and discourages them from even trying to get in to college and pursuing their dreams. Because of this discouragement and the imperfect acceptance process, the test should not be required in order to get accepted to college and instead it should be an optional test. No test can measure the skills that matter most in life: creativity, perseverance, collaboration, vision, self-discipline and the like, said Bob Schaeffer (Matthews, 2010). A students future should be based off more than their ability to succeed on one test.

Biases in the SAT References: Balf, T. (March 6, 2014). The story behind the SAT overhaul. NY Times Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/?action=click&contentCollection=Magazine&region=TopBar& module=HomePage-Button&pgtype=article Calamur, K. (2014, March). Optional essay and other changes coming to the SAT. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/05/286392637/no-more-essay-andother-changes-coming-to-the-sat CNN. (2011, April 19). CNN: is the SAT biased?. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIYeFNalyJ4&edufilter=Db24N54Eu_vpe4P65Iz5Fa &safe=active Crain, W. (2004). Biased test. ENCOUNTER: Education for meaning and social justice, 17(3), 2-4. Groves, M. (2001, August 29). SAT's gender gap widening. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/29/news/mn-39684 Jaschik, S. (2010, June 21). New evidence of racial bias on SAT. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/21/sat Mathews, J. (2010, July 8). Your SAT score has little to do with your life. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/classstruggle/2010/07/your_sat_score_has_little_to_d.html Mathews, J. (2004, June 23). Bad scores, good company. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61961-2004Jun22.html Wade, L. (2012, August 29). The correlation between income and SAT scores. Retrieved from http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/08/29/the-correlation-between-income-andsat-scores/