Introduction
The SAT or Scholastic Aptitude Test, is a very well understood form of test, particularly by high school learners across the United States. The SAT is a harmonized examination used in the United States for college admissions. The test includes a mathematics section and a verbal section. Verbal reasoning is assessed through the ability of test taker to accurately analyze and finish reading comprehension sentences, sentence completion predicaments and analogies. On the other hand, mathematics reasoning is assessed by the achievement of multiple-choice questions that cover areas like geometry and algebra, and questions where students are required to generate original or creative answers. The SAT is established, published and owned by a non-profit organization called College Board in the U.S. According to the College Board, SAT can evaluate the readiness of a student for college. This form of test or examination was established in the year 1901 and the name has been modified several times. Currently, the test is known as SAP Reasoning Test and this name was developed in the year 2005. The test is expected to take two hundred and twenty five minutes. This paper will discuss why the SAP should not be used in admissions for college.
Structure of SAT
The SAT is made up of three significant areas; writing, mathematics and reading. Every area gets a score ranging from 200 to 800. The overall scores are obtained by summing up all the performance of the three areas. In addition, the entire test consist of 225 minutes of the real timed areas, though most management allocate the test approximately 270 minutes due to other additional activities such as orientation, material allocation, few minutes allocated for breaks and completion of biographical areas. Questions within the SAT vary from hard, medium and easy relying on the performance from the experimental parts. Simpler questions basically occur closer to the starting of the area while the harder queries appear towards the end of the test though this occurs to specific sections.
Function of SAT
The SAT is used to evaluate the writing skills and literacy which are required for academic achievement in college. In addition, SAT measures how well one can solve and analyze problems; skills the test takers were trained in high school which they require in college. Basically, the SAT is carried out by high school seniors, juniors and sophomores. Particularly, the College Board says that the utilization of the SAT together with the school GPA (Grade Point Average) offers a more suitable indicator of one succeeding in college than the school grades alone. Moreover, the SAT is at times offered to learners who are thirteen years and below by agencies like SMPY (Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth), who utilize the outcomes to choose, mentor and study learners of exceptional ability.
Disparate impact of SAT
Some questions which are asked in the SAT have raised tremendous pressure and scrutiny regarding ethnically biased against Hispanics and Blacks. For instance, one of the questions states “The Dance Company rejects…………… preferring to present………………… dances in a manner that underscores their traditional appeal.” The answer to this question is innovation. The racial conditions of students answering the above question appropriately were 62 percent for the white and 38 percent for the black (Young 20).
The disparities in SAT performance is an verification to support that SAT has an unequal effect to the less privileged or minority groups within the process of college admissions. Therefore, there are several biases which are associated with SAT; gender bias, race bias and income bias. In addition, there are several educational issues which go beyond the significance of the SAT. Entirely, the SAT ought not to be a dependable factor for admitting students into college. Moreover, SAT is subjective against black test takers and lower-income earners. This is clearly observed when assessing actual SAT questions such as where learners are requested to choose the answer which best shows the same association as the one which best shows the same association as the one between two capitalized words like; RACQUET: TENNIS. The appropriate answer from the given multiple choices (springboard: driver, hoarse: polo, glove: boxing, club: golf and gun: hunting) is club: golf. From the analysis, the above question was answered appropriately by 22 percent non-white test takers and 53 percent white test takers (Freedle 12).
Basically, the above question does not evaluate the scholastic aptitude of the student. It is a way of understanding what the upper and middle class American actions are. The truth is that all students who carry out the SAT do not belong to the upper and middle class status. Although relationship does not result into causation due to the 53 percent of test takers of Whites who answered the above questions appropriately, mostly they come from families earning high income. Thus, being exposed to activities such as polo, horse and golf clubs does not essentially mean that such students could necessarily know the correct answer to such as a question because of their scholastic aptitude. On the other hand, the 78 percent of the non-white who gave the incorrect answer mostly come from low income families. This is because these black test takers are rarely exposed to polo, horse and golf clubs.
Similarly, SAT should not be used for college admission because they are monopolising which student joins or who does not join the college. Relationship is not similar to causation since the major factor why the SAT results are excellent for student from high income families is because such families are made up of parents who have gone to a college. This makes it simpler for parents from high income families to be in a position to help their children with questions of more high education degree. In addition, it is most likely that these parents, who have attended college, can stress the importance of excellent education to their children. Such families can easily employ a tutor and other resources in order to assist their children excel in their education. On the hand, lower income families are made up of parents who most likely have not attended college. As a result, this make it difficult for such parent to assist their children on more education based on the SAT and college test. Thus, it is more difficult for children from low income family to know more about the college test and SAT, and assistance to prepare such students for the SAT is limited.
In addition, SAT should not be used for college admission since they are also biased against gender. On the scores of the SAT, girls perform lower than boys. For instance, in the year 1988, girls scored on average 56 points lesser than boys (Weiss 15). Thus, from these SAT results, does it show that females are not as intellectual as their counterpart males? This is not true. According to researches, girls perform better than boys especially in college and high school (Weiss 14). The reality is that the questions which are included in the SAT are easier to be answered by boys than girls. For instance, most of the questions that are intended to measure the mathematic ability of a student cover more on sports. Therefore, such a question is easier to be answered by a male than a female since male like and understand sports more than females. Hence, SAT is not a perfect way of predicting the performance of a student in college.
Conclusion
SAT should not be used as a determining factor to admit or deny a person the opportunity to get into a college. This is because there are several important factors which are more perfect in measuring the hard work of a student during his or her high school years. An example of such factors includes the use of a high school grade point average. In addition, the verification that a learner worked hard for good grades during their years of high school is of better value than the SAT which is a single test. Moreover, the SAT should not be used for college admission because it is biased against gender, non-white test takers and lower income earners. Therefore, the only factor why SAT is still in existence is due to their financial needs to the ETS (Educational Testing Service).
Works Cited
Freedle, Roy. Correcting the SAT’s ethnic and social-class bias: A method for reestimating SAT scores. Harvard Educational Review 72 (2002): 1-43
Weiss, Dan. The death of disparate impact under Title VI: Alexander v. Sandoval and its effect on private challenges to high stakes testing programs. Boston University Law Review. 2004.
Young, Jeffrey. Researchers charge racial bias on the SAT. 2003. Web.