Abstract
Historically, African American and other underserved students encounter academic challenges in pursuit of a college degree-one of which is their performance on standardized tests. This paper analyzes College Grade Point Averages (CGPAs), ACT Composite (ACTC), and SAT Total (SATT) scores of students who participated in the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA), an out-of-school-time (OST) program, and Non-HSTA (NHSTA) students attending West Virginia University. Traditionally, OST programs provide academic enrichment to underserved youth to increase their chances for post-secondary entry and success. Two-Way Factorial ANOVA determined if HSTA participants performed better on academic measures than their NHSTA counterparts. The ANOVAs showed statistically significant differences based on Status (HSTA/NHSTA) and Race (African American/White) on the SATT and ACTC. Although not statistically significant, there are favorable outcomes on the CGPA for African American HSTA students comparable to their Non-HSTA counterparts.
Highlights
During the mid-1800s Horace Mann made an effort to address the social inequalities in the Boston Public Schools by introducing the first concepts of standardized testing— the Common Exam
Analyses of the GLM models for the mean ACT Composite (ACTC) and Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Total (SATT) scores show an effect on Status (HSTA/NHSTA) and Race (African American/White)
The results indicated that the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) intervention did not have a statistically significant difference in the College Grade Point Averages (CGPAs), nor the interaction of Status and Race, it is important to note that the HSTA African American students are making some academic strides over their NHSTA counterparts
Summary
During the mid-1800s Horace Mann made an effort to address the social inequalities in the Boston Public Schools by introducing the first concepts of standardized testing— the Common Exam. Mann’s intent was to acquire unbiased valuable information with the purpose of restructuring a system in which all students would have access to an equitable education. As he so eloquently wrote, Education, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men – the balance-wheel of the social machinery . Standardized tests are a highly studied indicator of the achievement gap between served and underserved youth, and there is a definitive disparity in these scores that occur along the lines of race/ethnicity, gender, family, and household income (College Board, 2014; National Center for Education Statistics, 2012)
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