Reveal The Racial Data On SAT Scores

[CShine]

PHILADELPHIA – This month, nearly a million high school seniors will put the finishing touches on their college applications. They will write stellar essays, garner recommendations from favorite teachers, and purchase new printer cartridges.

Pity, most of their efforts are purely cosmetic. From the colleges' standpoint, what matters most is something still not even a part of the application: the SAT score.

For many students, the SAT experience is not unlike an arranged marriage, one that forces students into years of counseling and prep before the big day. Each new generation of seniors would prefer a divorce from the grueling test that fails to reflect their entire high school experience, not to mention important traits like honesty and perseverance. Instead, they get coached. It should be no surprise that the College Board, which owns and administers the SAT, would like to see this very profitable relationship continue indefinitely.

The response to an essay on the SAT's alleged racial bias, which appeared in the Harvard Educational Review last spring, is a case in point. The author, Roy Freedle, retired in 1998 from the Educational Testing Service (which develops the test for the Board) after 31 years. He is not a disgruntled ex-employee. Mr. Freedle suggests that the SAT could be revised to include a score that would benefit African-Americans, who seem to do relatively better, on average, on harder questions. This supplemental score might help colleges make more informed choices, particularly when dealing with minority applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1217/p09s02-coop.html