A Student Should Get A Good Scholarship Or College Enrollment

Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.

Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

For many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.

Working Title: Examining the History of Standardized Tests in Higher Education through a Critical Race Lens and Analyzing Predictors of Graduate School Success among African Americans

American society likes to believe that race relations in our country are no longer strained. We do not want to hear about the need for affirmative action or about the growing numbers of white supremacist groups. In order to appease our collective conscious, we put aside the disturbing fact that racism is alive and well in the great U.S.A. It hides in the workplace, it subtly shows its ugly face in the media, and it affects the education of minority students nationwide. In the following excerpts from an interview with a middle class African American male, the reader will find strong evidence that race plays a major role in determining the type and quality of education a student receives.

Many students all over the world take a test which makes the person be defined of who they are in order to be admitted to a good college or even just a regular test. There are students that try hard to have a good test score, but as much as they try sometimes they don't get a wanted score. The scores that students get doesn't tell everything behind someone taking the test. Every individual can prove that with hard work and dedication to school, they are smart. They are capable of being an excellent student. Having their own way of being smart and not dumb. Students are more important than a number score that they get on a test. Therefore, I believe that test does not define a person.

Over the past decade, several researchers have released evidence proving a bias in standardized testing towards minority students. In this paper I will argue in favor of those supporting the idea of a bias in standardized testing. A bias in standardized testing would not only effect the students it is biased against, but the public and other students as well. This is why it is important that we take the time to educate ourselves with the evidence provided. In order to make a decision as to whether or not standardized testing is indeed biased, we must educate ourselves on the amount of test preparation the test requires, as well as how it is created.

Schools need to find ways to evaluate students which do not discriminate on race, gender, or economic status. By using tests like the ACT and SAT, colleges are unintentionally showing favoritism to groups like Caucasians, males, and the upper class. "Standardized tests are biased in favor of those whose culture and upbringing most closely resembles that of the test makers- typically, white middle-class males" (Facts). FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing did a study

With the creation of affirmative action policy, the election of the United States’ first African American President, and debate concerning reparations for slavery, twenty-first century America appears to have largely disowned its iniquitous history seated in centuries-long mistreatment and intolerance of non-white, minority peoples. Though the overt designs of slavery and Jim Crow no longer mare the American cultural landscape, the covert racist and classist machinations of bygone individual agents and national policies persist—though in lesser forms—within the nation’s paramount cultural institution: its education system. African American and Hispanic students consistently score lower on standardized exams—which determine grade advancement, college admission, and professional success--than white students (Ford).

Tests should not determine if you’re smart enough or capable of doing something. For example the SAT and ACT are tests that determine what university you’re capable of getting into. Most students don’t do well in tests but are very intelligent that means they’re book smart. Standardized testing affects the future of many people, for example if they’re smart and have a 4.0 gpa but get less than 1000 in the SAT, that means the student won’t get into a great

After analyzing extensive research done by Jay Rosner, executive director of the Princeton Review, Young concludes, “They’re not racists. The test company uses a completely neutral, colorblind system for picking questions. However, that system predictably, consistently, and reliably yields questions that favor whites dramatically over other subgroups” (Young). Young’s thoughts contradict Lemann’s opinion that EST purposely chooses racial preference questions. Instead of blaming the people at EST for such a wide score gap, Young blames the process of choosing which questions to put on the test. He presents an alternate view to racial bias on the SAT than what Lemann presents in his book. He explains how the question-choosing process is based off of reliability, that “reliable questions will be the those on which those who score highest overall do consistently well, and on which with low scores do consistently poor” (Young). Ultimately, those reliable questions will remain on the SAT and statistically, Caucasians will almost always score higher than any subgroup, even though “some minority students may score higher on those questions” (Young). Both he and Lemann agree that because of this, the SAT scores will always underestimate a subgroup’s

High stakes testing lengthens customary discrimination and contributes to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. The powerfully embedded stereotype that African Americans execute poorly on high stakes tests unfortunately deters numerous African Americans' testing capability. Research has revealed that minorities statistically consume poorer high stakes test scores than whites due to the prevailing, concealed predispositions in the improvement and management of standardized tests and understanding of his/her scores (Berlak, 2001). Due to that prevailing stereotype, the success gap will not start to close until existing principles and evaluation examinations are considerably restructured. Today, an abundant more extensive population of students takes the standardized tests, and much of the dissimilarity in their performance replicates contradictory levels of prospect. This is not reasonable or respectable in a civilization that is progressively differentiated

The authors discuss that one way African Americans have been harmed through high-stakes testing and standardized assessments is through limited improvement in test scores and dropout rates. Although some African American students may be receiving a quality education because they are reading at or above grade level and have proficient math skills, there still remains a countless number of African Americans who are at the same level and receiving a quality education (Thompson & Allen, 2012). Dropout rates once proved that African American students were not receiving a fair quality education; however, today, the dropout rate indicates that Black and White achievement gap has narrowed over time and achievement scores have increased, too many African Americans are still receiving a substandard education (Thompson & Allen, 2012).

Supporters of the test may state it is a good base or “key” to use and gage a student when looking to gauge their academic skill level. Swing to the other side and it’s unsurprisingly easy to find the reasons to oppose the test. Reasons include that the test prevents some students from unlocking their full academic potential due to their lack of easily available resources. Lack of these resources could be due to financial situations or a person’s ethnic background. Studies show the SAT cannot predict a student’s performance in secondary school. These studies examine and exhibit to us (the viewer) that the SAT lacks in showing a student’s true qualities and work ethic. Segregating students based on a test prevents a student from possibly unlocking their full potential. Students judged by their SAT are not the only ones missing out on potential academic success, the future of America loses the chance to further educate the next generation of potential