SAT scores play a large role in determining who gets admitted to which colleges and universities, and in some situations, who gets scholarships. Based on last year’s tests, SAT participants are accused of receiving the lowest scores on record in the last decade.
One of the reasons for the “slight” drop in SAT scores has to do with the people taking the test (duh!). A larger, more diverse group of young people are involved. The “takers of the test” include more poor and nonwhite students than in previous years. Not too surprisingly, SAT scores have traditionally correlated quite well with race and family income.
In 2010, 74 percent taking the test used English as a first language, and 54 percent of the students taking the SAT were white. Since then, “takers of the test” have become more diverse. There are many more Hispanics taking the test, many of whom speak English as a second language. The number of students from poor families has also increased, though the majority were from middle and upper income families.
SAT scores clearly associate high test scores with race and family income, so strongly some call it the “Student Affluence Test,” because coming from a wealthy family seems to be the deciding factor. This, in part, is because wealthy families can afford test preparation classes for their children, allowing them to pre-test several times. There are also people who argue the testing is biased and favors people living in the “white” culture.
However, SAT scores dropped slightly across the board, even among students having the most advantages. Across the nation, students are doing a little worse than their counterparts in 2010. This includes students from the families making more than $100,000 a year. It also includes students with parents having graduate degrees, and students with an A+ average in their classes.
Some universities and colleges have decided the SAT and ACT tests are simply too limiting (some people don’t take tests well) and are not especially good indicators on how a student will do in college, or after college. During the past two years, schools such as Bryn Mawr College, Brandeis University, George Washington University and Wesleyan University have adopted an alternative method for screening potential students. This is called a test-optional policy and allows students to submit an academic portfolio.
Students are fully aware the SAT tests are not a realistic reflection of who they are, and this, too, needs to be considered when looking at the lower test scores. The SAT tests are part of a dysfunctional bureaucracy young people are, more and more, rejecting. Lower SAT scores do not mean our young people are becoming more stupid, it means they just don’t care as much as the the class of 2005.
Featured image via WikiMedia
