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THE S.A.T. COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TEST IS CANCELING PLANS TO CATEGORIZE STUDENTS BASED ON THEIR “PRIVILEGE”
by Kevin Ryan
The SAT, the standardized test taken by about two millions students each year to help colleges determine whether they are academically qualified for admission, is abandoning plans to add an “adversity score” to the test results to quantify factors that they say may have influenced each student’s test score, like educational or socioeconomic disadvantage. The College Board, the New York based nonprofit that oversees the SAT, had faced criticism from educators and parents since announcing the new adversity score earlier this year.
The score would have been a number between 1 and 100, with an average student receiving a 50. Anything above 50 would have designated “hardship”, below it “privilege”.
“We listened to thoughtful criticism,” said David Coleman, CEO of the College Board in a statement.
Despite canceling plans to list each student’s “adversity score” alongside his or her actual SAT score, the company is still going through with its plan to try to capture a student’s social and economic background by providing a broad array of data points on the neighborhood and school the student comes from.
Each student’s SAT report will now include data designed to let colleges know what type of socioeconomic background they come from, based on:
NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENT
• Crime rate
• Poverty rate
• Housing values
• Vacancy rate
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT
• Median income
• Single parent
• Education level
• English as a second language
HIGH SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
• Schools with students who attend less challenging colleges
• Curricular rigor
• Free lunch rate
• Advanced placement opportunity
Critics and former employees of the company say the factors being evaluated are strongly correlated with race.
“The purpose is to get to race without using race,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Mr. Carnevale formerly worked for the College Board.
College admissions officers say they worry that Supreme Court may disallow race-based affirmative action. The socioeconomic data that will be provided by the SAT could allow colleges to continue to use race as an admissions factor by acting as a proxy for race.
SOURCES:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-board-drops-plans-for-sat-student-adversity-scores-11566928181
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/landscape/comprehensive-data-methodology-overview.pdf
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sat-to...re-social-and-economic-background-11557999000
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sat-ad...dversity-score-in-bid-to-level-playing-field/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/sat-score.html
THE S.A.T. COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TEST IS CANCELING PLANS TO CATEGORIZE STUDENTS BASED ON THEIR “PRIVILEGE”
by Kevin Ryan
The SAT, the standardized test taken by about two millions students each year to help colleges determine whether they are academically qualified for admission, is abandoning plans to add an “adversity score” to the test results to quantify factors that they say may have influenced each student’s test score, like educational or socioeconomic disadvantage. The College Board, the New York based nonprofit that oversees the SAT, had faced criticism from educators and parents since announcing the new adversity score earlier this year.
The score would have been a number between 1 and 100, with an average student receiving a 50. Anything above 50 would have designated “hardship”, below it “privilege”.
“We listened to thoughtful criticism,” said David Coleman, CEO of the College Board in a statement.
Despite canceling plans to list each student’s “adversity score” alongside his or her actual SAT score, the company is still going through with its plan to try to capture a student’s social and economic background by providing a broad array of data points on the neighborhood and school the student comes from.
Each student’s SAT report will now include data designed to let colleges know what type of socioeconomic background they come from, based on:
NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENT
• Crime rate
• Poverty rate
• Housing values
• Vacancy rate
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT
• Median income
• Single parent
• Education level
• English as a second language
HIGH SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
• Schools with students who attend less challenging colleges
• Curricular rigor
• Free lunch rate
• Advanced placement opportunity
Critics and former employees of the company say the factors being evaluated are strongly correlated with race.
“The purpose is to get to race without using race,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Mr. Carnevale formerly worked for the College Board.
College admissions officers say they worry that Supreme Court may disallow race-based affirmative action. The socioeconomic data that will be provided by the SAT could allow colleges to continue to use race as an admissions factor by acting as a proxy for race.
SOURCES:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-board-drops-plans-for-sat-student-adversity-scores-11566928181
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/landscape/comprehensive-data-methodology-overview.pdf
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sat-to...re-social-and-economic-background-11557999000
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sat-ad...dversity-score-in-bid-to-level-playing-field/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/sat-score.html
