Education

Lawsuit Claims SAT And ACT Are Biased—Here’s What Research Says


New lawsuits are demanding that the University of California (UC) system eliminate the requirement that students take the SAT or ACT to be considered for admission. The lawsuits, filed on behalf of the Compton Unified School District, four students and six community organizations claim that the tests are biased and don’t predict a student’s potential success. There is ample research to support their case against the tests.

Those who support testing suggest it’s the only way to objectively compare students from different high schools. For example, one student may receive all A’s at a less challenging high school, and another gets all B’s at a much more challenging high school. The admissions committees within the UC system which receive over 200,000 applications per year would have difficulty researching each applicant’s high school to determine how to fairly compare these two students. The SAT and ACT theoretically provide an objective way to compare students from different high schools.

Racial And Economic Bias

However, the lawsuit argues that using the tests violates the state’s anti-discrimination statute because it disadvantages children of color, children from low-income families and children with disabilities. Research seems to support this notion.

With regard to race, in 2018, combined SAT scores for Asian and White students averaged over 1100, while all other groups averaged below 1000. With regard to income, a 2015 analysis found that students with family income less than $20,000 scored lowest on the test, and those with family income above $200,000 scored highest. And we’re not talking about just a couple of points. The average reading score for those students whose family income is below $20,000 is 433, but the average for those with income of above $200,000 is 570. Clearly, there is disadvantage.

The disadvantage is typically attributed to test preparation. There is substantial evidence that test prep can raise test scores, and even the College Board who administers the SAT test admits there are benefits associated with test prep. But high quality test prep can be expensive, and many can’t afford the fees associated with these tutoring classes. Beyond test preparation, high income students often have access to educational opportunities not available to low income students.

Some portion of the differences in test scores may also be attributed to stereotype threat. Stereotypes, like those that suggest certain racial groups are good at math and others are not, raise self-doubts and increase anxiety during high-pressure exams and result in worse scores for those who are negatively stereotyped (and better scores for those with positive stereotypes). Research has shown that reminding students of their racial group before taking a test can impact their score.

Perhaps the most egregious example of the extremes that high-income parents are willing to go to in order to obtain high SAT scores for their kids was revealed in last year’s college cheating scandal. Parents were accused of bribing administrators into letting them alter students’ test scores by either letting someone take the test for them, or by correcting the students answers after they finished the exam.

Gender Bias

Although the UC lawsuit focuses on racial and economic bias, there have long been questions raised regarding gender bias and these standardized tests. Despite the fact that girls consistently perform better than boys in high school math classes, girls underperform boys in the math sections of these tests. For example, for SAT tests taken by the class of 2019, girls averaged 519 and boys averaged 537. While not as large as the racial and economic gaps, it’s still disconcerting.

The reason for the gender discrepancy has been blamed on several factors. Since women are negatively stereotyped to underperform in mathematics relative to their male peers, stereotype threat likely plays a role. There is even some evidence that passages in the test may remind test-takers of these negative stereotypes. Reminding the stereotyped group of the stereotypes can increase their anxiety making their test scores worse.

Other explanations include test length, with one study finding evidence that a longer test would help reduce the gender gap. Enhanced spatial abilities in boys and men may also give boys a time advantage on the test. And still others have suggested that a positive attitude regarding competition favors male students taking the test.

Test Optional Colleges And Universities

To reduce the bias from testing, over 1,000 colleges and universities are now test optional. That is, students can choose whether or not they wish to include test scores in their application. (University of California is not test optional). One study examined the college success of those students who submitted scores and those who did not. If the schools’ admissions committees make better admissions decisions when they have test scores, then those students who submitted test scores should perform better in college than those who did not submit scores.

Statistical analyses revealed that there were no significant differences in college cumulative GPA and graduation rates between submitters (those that submitted SAT scores) and non-submitters. However, the two groups have significantly large differences in their test scores, a whopping 113 points. These results indicate that admissions officers can successfully predict who will succeed in college even without the use of the test.

With regard to the UC case, even the chancellors of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and the University of California’s Provost have come out in favor of dropping the SAT and ACT as an admission requirement, due to the fact that tests were strongly influenced by family income, race and parents’ education level.

If the UC’s are forced to drop the SAT requirement, then many predict other colleges and universities will follow suit. It seems time that admissions departments found a system for evaluating students that is more inclusive.



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