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Whiter
and Wealthier Melting
Pot, It's Not How One Immigrant School is Dealing
with Integration A
Tale of Two Schools Trapped
Between Two Worlds Minority
Masters |
Nature
or Nuture? by Matt PacenzaThe original intent of the SAT was to measure the innate academic ability of potential college students. Lemann writes, "Inside ETS, it was a cherished assumption that the SAT was uncoachable...that mental tests were a measurement of a physical property of the brain, analogous to taking a blood sample."
This idea that the SAT could judge academic potential independent of previous influence has been criticized since the test's first days. Brigham raised the first flags, followed soon after by liberal educators W. Allison Davis and Robert J. Havirhurst, who argued in The Scientific Monthly in 1948 that mental testing was a fraud which measured socioeconomic advantages more than actual ability. Screwing the Poor: A Class
Critique ETS downplays the impact of test preparation on SAT scores, but its own research found that short-term preparation programs (about 20 hours) improve total scores an average of about 25 points. Longer-term programs (about 40 hours) improve scores an average of 45 points. Wealthier schools often integrate SAT preparation into the curriculum. The York Preparatory Academy, a small private school on Manhattan's west side, pays Kaplan to teach its juniors and seniors test-taking strategies twice a week. "Everything we do is geared to getting our students into college," says York's director of college preparation Jamie Stewart, who has more than 30 years of experience in admissions counseling. She proudly pointed to the private school's 100 percent placement rate into college for its senior class, bolstered not only by SAT preparation, but by intensive guidance counseling and by courses which teach students how to write their admissions essays. SAT scores are raised not only by expensive preparation services, but also by the amount of money a school district invests in a student's elementary, junior high and high school education. Gad Guterman, who teaches at an elite private high school in Englewood, New Jersey-the Dwight-Englewood School-says that his school "prepares their students for standardized schools from kindergarten. It's part of the environment from day one." Guterman also adds that the prep school requires Latin for middle school students, which helps builds vocabulary in preparation for the SAT. Gerald Bracey, a policy analyst who used to work at ETS, argues that student's performance on standardized tests is directly linked to the quality and cost of their schooling. Bracey, in a 1997 article published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, challenges the idea, promoted by former Secretary of Education William Bennet in 1993, that there is no relation between school spending and SAT scores. The problem with Bennet's report-which was widely publicized-is that he pointed to the fact that the states with the highest average SAT scores (Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Minnesota) have the lowest per-capita school spending in the nation. Unfortunately, Bennet's report failed to mention that in the above states, only the best students interested in attending elite Eastern and California universities take the SAT. Most take the ACT, the SAT's main rival, which is required mostly by the large public Midwestern schools near their homes. For example, only 5 percent of students in Iowa take the SAT, compared to 76 percent of students in New Jersey. Bracey concludes, "when a team composed of 75 percent of the class goes up against a team made up of a 5 percent elite, the elite will always win the day." Bracey's argument is bolstered by a 1996 Harvard Educational Review article by Brian Powell and Lala Carr Steelman, which found that SAT scores increase by 15 points for every $1,000 a school spends above the national average. Screwing the Brown: A Race
Critique ETS statistics show the gaps between races clearly, including the fact that Asian American students score the highest of any race. The reasons for this gap are debated widely. One factor is the large and growing number of students who aren't fluent in English-a recent article in the ERIC digest by federal researcher Kurt Geisinger found that 15 to 20 percent of U.S. schoolchildren today speak a foreign language at home, and that number is growing rapidly. Andrea Swenson is a college counselor at Newcomers, a Queens, NY public school. A "transitional" school, Newcomers teaches immigrant students who have been in the U.S. for one or two years, so the vast majority of her students are learning English as they prepare for the SAT. "The SAT Verbal test for our students is catastrophic," Swenson says. "It's full of vocabulary that our students don't have time to acquire. Also, new students are extremely frustrated with multiple choice exams-in most other countries, they emphasize essays in their testing." For new immigrants, Swenson concludes, "the SAT is not a good indicator of their success. Our students might get low scores, but they work so hard-probably at least twice as long on everything as a native English speaker. And that kind of determination often translates into success at college, even if their test scores are low." A recent Associated Press report outlined several theories as to why African-Americans score badly on the exams. Some point to the "avoidance theory," which states minority students develop such a fear of the college entrance tests that they avoid taking them, wait until the last possible moment and don't prepare adequately. Other critics believe that the essential issue is disparity in school funding and quality. Regardless of the cause, both ETS researchers and college admissions professional grapple with the race and class gaps shown is SAT results, particularly as affirmative actions are cut across the United States. Return to lead SAT article: Whiter and Wealthier |