Academic Testing: Gatekeeping America’s Higher Education
At one point in our lives we must take a determining test to measure our academic success and worth under the disguise of knowledge and capabilities. For many of us, it begins with one of the two prominently known college admission exams, the SAT and ACT. Most colleges and universities require either the SAT or ACT for their collegiate application and so a significant percentage of students globally take and submit their scores of either one or both exams. Preparing for these two major standardized tests and completing the entire college admissions process is arduous and anxiety-inducing. Students are judged heavily on their cumulative high school grade point average (GPA) and SAT/ACT score. Those who exceed and do well are expected to be rewarded with admission towards their target and reach schools from their desired colleges. However, while the SAT and ACT are highly used standardized tests with the notion to fairly judge and predict successful students from their large pool of applicants, admission officers, professors, and educational experts have questioned the validity and reliability of using these exam scores as a predictor of a successful college student at their institution. The SAT and ACT has been built and developed on a problematic foundation that is racially, genderly, and economically biased towards certain groups of students. Furthermore, previous and recent studies have shown that high scored results are not always an indication of a thriving first year college student and have found stark divisions in scores and acceptances by race, gender, and family income.
The creation of the SAT, also formerly known as the “Scholastic Aptitude Test,” “Scholastic Assessment Test,” and “SAT Reasoning Test,” began with Carl Brigham, a eugenicist and psychologist, who wrote his infamous book, A Study of American Intelligence, where he claims that African Americans and blacks were on the lower end of the racial, ethnic, and cultural spectrum. He argued that through standardized testing, it will show the superiority of the Nordic race and warned the public on the dangers of intermingling with new immigrants, believing that the American education system was in decline and that racial mixing would only accelerate the devastating and extensive downfall of American academia (“Where Did the Test Come from?”).
He created the first versions of the exam for the US army during World War I as an aptitude test to arrange and organize soldiers into units based on their intellect. The results notably segregated the army by race where the black test takers were seen to have lower scores and underachieving than their white counterparts. It was not until 1926 where the SAT was administered as our traditional academic admission exam starting with a total of 315 questions on American vocabulary and math. What was also prevalent in 1926 was the belief that ethnic origin and intelligence were connected. This led to the SAT to be used as a legal gatekeeper for college admissions where certain test scores could be used as a disapproval for admission of particularly unwanted racial groups (Rosales & Walker). As a result, many minority students were denied further education and were discouraged from taking the SAT knowing that their chances of acceptance were nearly impossible.
Participation in SAT from colored students increased as opportunities and racial discrimination slowly declined over time. However, the racial foundation of the SAT and the prevention of colored students in higher education still affects minority groups today (Dargan). A survey conducted by the College Board in 1976 analyzed and previously revealed that Black students had an average score that was usually 240 points lower than their white counterparts. Thankfully, the gap was narrowed 177 points in their 2018 analysis and by 2020, the gap was lessened to 93 points. Given that there is a seen persistence in the gap between scores, suggest that underlying racial and socioeconomic issues regarding the SAT and ACT to which we know they do have long-standing problems of bias, racial, and socioeconomic inequality. Non-Asian students of color are seen to have a historical trend of having lower SAT scores than their White and Asian peers and that many students do suffer and lose the opportunity for entry into prestigious schools.
Another alarming reveal found that there has been a notable racial gap in SAT math scores. Blacks and Hispanic students reported having significantly lower average math scores of 454 and 478 respectively than their white and Asian peers who scored between 547 and 632 out of 800. The analyses found similar racial gaps in the SAT English scores too, but the differences are not as stark and upsetting (Ford & Triplett). As a result, this creates different college readiness criteria for each racial and ethnic group. However, the American educational system refuses to acknowledge the differences and the racial gap in scores and since many colleges use SAT scores to assist in the admission and financial aid process, admissions officers are more selective towards the top of the score distribution which tends to be White and Asian applicants as shown above in graph. As a result, Black, Latino, Native, as well as some students from the Asian community have or will experience some form of bias and limiter from SAT (Smith & Richard).
Similarly to the SAT, the ACT also had this issue. The ACT was developed as a competitor known as “American College Testing” against the Collegeboard’s SAT by a University of Iowa education professor, Everett Franklin Lindquist. He argued that the ACT would be more than the SAT, not only will it test an individual’s cognitive reasoning, it would also test the material learned in school and was the first test to have a science reasoning section. The ACT’s goal was much different from the SAT where it was used to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses and help guide their placement on a national scale rather than a method to determine one’s cognitive abilities.
While the ACT’s original purpose was much more academically beneficial to measure high schoolers’ readiness for college, the ACT’s design expected all students to be on the same playing field which was geared toward American culture and learning environments. This meant that the ACT expected all students, regardless of those taught and raised in a different background or learned a different language growing up, to understand American English, culture, history, and norms. Furthermore, ACT scores had a direct positive correlation with family income. The higher the family income, the higher the average score the student received (Kantrowitz). A 2015 CollegeBoard analysis revealed that students from families with an income less than $20,000 scored the lowest while those from families with an income greater than $200,000 scored the highest. The gap between the two groups of students are statistically significant. Those from lower-income families scored an average score of 433 on the SAT reading test, and those from higher income families scored an average of 570 making a clear difference on how socioeconomic status creates a disadvantage (Elsesser). Students of color, notably black and brown students, and students from low socioeconomic families, are those who suffer the most. Obvious reasons lie in America’s racist history towards minorities and people of color along with the many of discriminating racial and ethnic beliefs woven in the American education system. Those on the lower socioeconomic end, can not afford the same opportunities as those from higher and more affluent families. For example, some families can afford additional private tutoring to help support their children in preparation for college and on the SAT and/or ACT which expectedly gets them into top schools, while those who do not have the money did not have access to such support. The CollegeBoard has even admitted that there are advantages with test preparation. However SAT and ACT preparation fees for quality tutoring and courses can be expensive and not every family can afford the cost. As a result, many students from low income families rely on their only educational opportunity, high school, while those from high income families are given more options and chances on how to improve their score (Elsesser). Ultimately, leading to scores that could be misleading and often hide the fact that economic inequities associated with the SAT and ACT exist. Therefore, this overall expectation of an “equal ground” causes an unfair and biased edge towards a particular test taking group, often unintentionally hurting other groups of students.
Furthermore, while not as upsetting and extensive as the racial and socioeconomic gaps in SAT and ACT scores, the gender discrepancy associated with the two exams are concerning. Analyses of the previous SAT reported that 31% more men scored better than women and ranked more as the highest scoring students. However, after the implementation of the new and current SAT, this gap increased by 45% more males scoring higher than females as shown in the graph (Rosser). The difference lies between the math scores and how half of the current SAT total is based on math while the other half is based on Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. An analysis by an American College Testing company found that despite female high school students earning overall higher grades in most subjects including English and Math than their male peers, female students scored lower on the math and science portions of the SAT in comparison to male counterparts which suggests external and environmental factors such as old societal stereotypes that negatively perceive women to underperform in mathematics to their male peers leading anxiety and stress that could affect their ACT and SAT scores (Buddin). Research and analysis of the SAT and ACT have also shown to remind women taking the exam of the negative conventional stereotype that could threaten their performance and lead to an increase of anxiety on notably all math questions (Erde). Ultimately, these stereotypes that indicate females are bad at math, have shown to raise self doubts during determining exams such as the SAT and ACT creating an unintentional edge towards male students and damaging the confidence and chances of female students to score high and represent their true academic profile.
Over 2 million students worldwide take the SAT and/or ACT every year and these two exams have endured as a long standing tradition for college admission under the notion to uniformly judge applicants fairly. The scores represent a student’s strengths and weaknesses and as indicators for their readiness for college work. They are used to help college admission officers judge and compare students from within the same and different high schools. Ironically, their intentional and unintentional bias towards racial, gender, and financial foundations causes certain students to be rejected and declined to their eligible institutions. Over the years, these standardized tests have been used as a weapon to objectively degrade and deny acceptance from most minority and/or low income families and exclude them from prestigious colleges and universities. With SAT and ACT scores becoming optional for future college admissions, perhaps college admission officers will review a student’s profile more accurately and fairly.
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