Children from wealthy families score disproportionately better than their less privileged counterparts on crucial standardized tests like the SAT, according to new data analyzed by Harvard-based organization Opportunity Insights.
Students who came from families in the top 20% of earners were seven times more likely to get a “good” score (above a 1300 on the SAT or a 29 on the ACT) than students coming from the bottom 20% of earners, according to College Board and admissions data analyzed in the study. These students from low-income families not only earned lower scores on the standardized tests, but were significantly less likely to take them in the first place; only one in five students in the bottom 20% took the SAT or ACT.
The cost of taking both the SAT and ACT exams once is over $100, before the additional costs of essay sections, subject tests, tutoring or textbook prep. Data from over 9,000 public schools shows that students in affluent school districts are also more likely to get “504 designations” that allow for academic accommodations like extra time or a private space to take the tests, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“There are discrepancies with the SAT and test scores that matter for college admission, but there’s also a ton of inequality that happens before that,” said Dr. Ann Lauren Owens, a professor of sociology and social policy at USC. “As much as we pretend to believe it, we don’t live in an open society where everybody has an equal chance to succeed…There are a lot of things affecting people’s access other than good test scores.”
Analysis of admissions and attendance records in the study further uncovered the overrepresentation of wealthy students at elite colleges. Legacy status, athletics programs, donations and growing up in an environment with the resources to better prepare them for pursuing higher education all play a role in that overrepresentation, the study found.
Test score gaps are indicators of inequality and educational opportunity, according to Owens. But those gaps are the result of family backgrounds, where students grew up and their educational and extracurricular opportunities.
“By the time we get to testing, it’s really the culmination of 18 years of lots of different sources of inequality in our society,” she continued.
Students having fewer resources is directly linked to lower scores on standardized testing; This also correlates to a disparity between test scores of white students and students of color, who, according to a study on income segregation between school districts, are more likely to live in poorly-funded school districts with less opportunities and resources for academic success.
“Colleges are faced with an applicant pool that has faced unequal access to opportunity and unequal exposure to different challenges, and they’re asked to come up with policies that somehow admit a class on ‘fair grounds’,” Owens noted.
There is no ubiquitous policy that would solve social inequality and immobility in higher education. Until one is found, some students think the SAT and ACT should remain the benchmark of educational testing.
“I may be old fashioned, but I think that standardized testing is really important,” said Juwon Seo, a fifth-year student at USC studying architecture. “It’s true that wealth and affluence give you more time and opportunities to get better…but unless they find a better standardized testing form, I think regardless of what it is, it is needed.”