Does Not Rely Upon Intrinsic Aptitude?

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.

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

In a speech in February 2013 President Barak Obama said, “One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” It been three years since President Obama has made that statement and the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math as known as STEM majors is still a big problem today. The STEM workforce is crucial to Americas global competitiveness and groundbreaking capability. The people who work in the STEM field make up nearly half of the United

Academicians should motivate their students to take whatever subjects they want without taking into consideration the myths surrounding stem subjects. Students should be able to differentiate myths from reality because male and female brains are the same, none is superior to the other.

Based on the first school of thought, scholars argue that racial inequality plays a significant role in the SAT. Many scholars expand on the idea that SAT testing limits racial diversity and builds a racial gap. (Brookings) Among many studies, Saul Geiser found that the most influential factor in account to testing variation is based on race. According to his findings, he has determined that “race has now become more influential than either family income or parental education as a determinant of test performance”. (Geiser, 2015) Other scholars state that although the SAT scores can predict student success in higher education institutions, the SAT score also reflects racial inequalities. (Shaw, 2015). Initially, the need for standardized testing

The issue with the SAT test is a dilemma when it comes to certain subgroups in this country, even though it seems to maintain its effectiveness for others depending upon race, ethnicity, and gender. Colleges and universities administrators, testing agencies and psychometricians should reassess the use of the SAT’s as the only means of admissions and develop new criteria for admissions for higher education.

The stated prerogative is to introduce slow yet lasting change and to integrate more women and people of color within the STEM field; however, the plan for change, and the reason for its perceived need to be slow is nowhere addressed; , suggesting that it is rather the reluctance of men to relinquish control and allow feminization of the field (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). Reports of these initiatives claim to be struggling struggle in attracting and keeping women within the STEM field. Yet by shifting the blame on women, the inaction taken by scientific institutions to reform the patriarchal ideals dominating the scientific realm is justified (Tepperman and Curtis, 2012). In addition, the economic paradigm that western society is built around is one that necessitates inequality to function. The Neoliberal welfare is instrumental in constructing gender

This report navigates the current state of STEM demographic in the country. It examines the reasons why there are less females undertaking STEM majors and gives recommendations on the problems. A brief history on STEM is outlined and the discussion follows with in depth analysis on the subject. STEM is a very critical education discipline with an importance in the economy of the country. Much as it is important, few students choose a career path in STEM. Although, there are more than 50% female students in Colleges and Universities, 12% take STEM related course. Why is this? This report is a compilation of empirical data collected in journals on the same subject explaining

The issue of whether students should take standardized tests in order to get selected by top tier colleges has been a heated debate for quite some time now. In this essay, I will be examining whether standardized testing is a fair assessment of one's overall knowledge or achievement in one's educational career, and whether it has grounds to determine whether a person is qualified for higher educational opportunities. The SAT and ACT are two of the most known standardized tests which are used to measure and assess how well a student will do in his or her college life, however, these tests do not seem to be good determinants for one's academic intelligence and actually deter students from proper learning in the classroom by promoting a narrow

That time when students must begin applying for university is quickly approaching. Many students are preparing to take standardized tests such as the SAT in order to get accepted into the university of their dreams. However, standardized tests such as the SAT do not properly assess the level of knowledge of students since equality is not the same as justice. Factors such as personal weaknesses and biological effects may not have been considered when standardized tests such as these were written or when it was decided that the SAT would be a major factor in being accepted into a university. Therefore, one's SAT scores should not be the most, or an, important factor in determining one's acceptance into university.

STH has been used to explain gender disparity within STEM, and Schrouten says it happens when, “Fear of confirming stereotypes about the low aptitude of women relative to men in mathematics causes women to experience anxiety in circumstances wherein their performance might potentially confirm those stereotypes” (452). The three circumstances that are traditionally involved when STH occurs are awareness of negative stereotypes about a group which causes anxiety, differences in performance between these groups and everyone else which helps to worsen the problem, and personal identification within the area where there are negative stereotypes and worse performance (453). This phenomenon is traditionally used to explain why there are less women in STEM, but Schrouten attempts to apply it to philosophy. At first glance, Schrouten does not think it is apparent that there are negative stereotypes about women’s ability in philosophy like there are in mathematics, and there is no available evidence that women perform worse than men in introductory philosophy courses. Also, because in most introductory courses, the students do not have prior experience, they probably do not strongly identify with the area of

In the context of Higher Education and its reliance on the SATs as a predictor to determine the fate of many student’s paths, it is important to know that the this standardized test scores accurately measure what we say they measure.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT is a very well known test, especially by high school students across America. This test consist of 138 questions, all multiple choice except for several math graphs, divided into two sections-math and verbal, both scored on a scale of 200 to 800 (Pacenza). The SAT’s are currently a determining factor for college admissions. This paper will only address the SAT’s, not the PSAT’s or the ACT”s. The SAT was born in the 1920s-the product of a growing desire by American educators, led by Harvard president James Bryant Conant, to open up their universities to the best students across the country (Pacenza). After searching for something that could satisfy their quest for intelligence, the American educators came to a test created by Princeton psychologist Carl Brigham. Brigham had created this test because he concluded in his 1922 book, A Study of American Intelligence that, "American intelligence is declining, and will proceed with an accelerating rate as the racial admixture becomes more and more extensive." The test was created because according to the author there needed to be a “division since racial admixture becomes more and more extensive.” The author made the test to be able and pick out the smart, white males and be able to put them in recognized institutions.

University entrance test scores play a significant and usually underestimated role “in the college admission process,” which influences decisions in reference to “university admission and scholarship award offers” (Montgomery and Lilly 3). Due to the increase of applicants during the last few decades, universities have shifted to greatly rely upon standardized testing scores, especially for scholarship opportunities (Montgomery and Lilly 3). Various research studies show “that standardized tests are” accurate predictors of students’ academic performance in undergraduate and graduate levels (Shen et al. 197). For example, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is one of the most used standardized tests that is recognized as a good predictor of students’ “first college year” performance (Buchmann et al. 439). In fact, an average of two million students take the SAT every year (Buchmann et al. 435). Although the SAT is an acceptable medium to predict how students will perform on their first year of undergraduate studies, it may need improvements to avoid favoring a specific gender and social class.

Throughout time there has been a common stereotype that girls, and women, are bad at math and science. However, there are women who graduate college with STEM degrees, thus claiming women are biologically worse than men in this field