Improving SAT Scores: Pros, Cons, Methods

Abstract

About 7000 black high school seniors score 1000 or above on the combined Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT). This places them at about the 80th percentile on these tests. The national average is about 900. About 21,000 black high school seniors score 700 or below on the SAT (about the 15th percentile) and are a cause for concern in many circles. These proportions can be made more comparable, and this paper sets forth methods by which this can be achieved. So much controversy surrounds the SAT that it is well to begin with a discussion of this dispute, including the pros and cons of making an effort to improve SAT scores in its context. A large number of individuals argue that it would be wise to use the time and effort necessary to raise SAT scores to concentrate on richer learning experiences which may or may not translate into higher SAT scores but which may serve black youths well as they grow into adulthood. Lynn Cheney, the new director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for example, has stated flatly-on national television-that the SAT has little relationship to success in college and that students preparing for the SAT might better use their time to master the general curriculum more fully with an eye to doing well on achievement tests. The tests and their maker and progenitor, Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the College Entrance Examination Board, have been investigated by a federal legislative body and sued by a truth-in-testing organization on the same grounds, i.e., lack of power of the SAT to predict success in college. Many individuals are convinced that the tests are simply biased against minorities and women and they can point out item after item to support this contention. As a result of charges of gender bias in scholarship awards based on the SAT, for example, the New York