University of Virginia Library

'Geared For Whites'

SAT's Accurate Despite 'Bias'

By Pete Shea
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Although geared to the
educational experiences of middle
class white students, the Scholastic
Aptitude Tests (SAT's) do give an
accurate prediction of a student's
ability to perform in college.

The popular feeling that educationally
underprivileged students
are placed at a distinct disadvantage
on mot intelligence tests is admitted
by most sources. However,
studies find that these tests do
"reflect a person's ability to perform
in his first year of college," as
claimed by John P. Smith of the
news bureau of the Educational
Testing Service (ETS), the organization
that supplies the SAT's.

According to Mr. Smith, the
questions asked on the SAT's are
drawn up by Committees of Educators
with five or six teachers on
each committee. These questions
reflect the educational backgrounds
of their originators and admittedly
are geared for the majority of those
who take the tests. That majority,
figures indicate, consists of middle
class white students.

The E.T.S. itself, in a pamphlet
entitled "College Board Score Reports,"
warns the admissions people
of the inequities of its tests.
"Scores on the PSAT and SAT, as
on some other tests of their kind,
may misrepresent the learning ability
of students whose educational
experience, in or out of school, has
been significantly different from
that of the majority of students
who take the tests. The misrepresentation
may lead to educational
decisions about those students that
are both incorrect and incompatible
with American ideals," according to
the pamphlet.

Although the E.T.S. has never
analyzed its test's results on racial
or economic lines, the results of a
special I.Q. test suggest that a test
biased against a certain segment of
the population has considerable
effect on performance. The test was
based on a "soul" language rather
than on English and was given to a
mixed group of students.

The Negroes who took the test
performed better than the whites
who took part. Those Negroes who
did best were the ones who
performed best on the "regular"
I.Q. test. These results show that a
student's performance on a given
test is determined by his environment.
On the "soul" test, the white
students were the ones who suffered
from a cultural deprivation.

A Johns Hopkins University
study shows that "the SAT math
and verbal scores predict freshman
year grade-point averages about as
well for Negro men in Negro
colleges as for non-Negro men in
other state colleges. The predictive
efficiency is greater for non-Negro
women than for Negro women."
Other studies also show that the
American College Tests give an
accurate estimate of a student's
ability to perform in college.