Scholastic Assessment Test

Near the turn of the 20th century, the College Entrance Examination Board (now referred to as the College Board) was formed to coordinate the admission testing requirements of selective colleges in the northeastern United States. In 1901, the College Board administered its first examination. Over a century later, standardized admissions tests in higher education have achieved unprecedented popularity.

The test that is currently used by the College Board is the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT; formally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test), which was developed by the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. The SAT is widely used in the eastern and western United States. Similar tests, such as the American College Test (ACT), are primarily used in the mid-western United States.

The SAT is actually a testing program, not a single test. In its current form, this program includes the SAT I: Reasoning Test and the SAT II: Subject Tests (e.g., history, biology, chemistry). Because of its general use and wealth of research data, only the SAT I will be discussed here. Since 2001, the SAT I has consisted of three subtests: the Critical Reading Exam (commonly referred to as the SAT Verbal), the Mathematics Exam (commonly referred to as the SAT Math), and the Writing Exam. Scores on each of the subtests range from 200 to 800 with a mean of 500 (SD = 100). Scores on the SAT Verbal and SAT Math are commonly added together to form a single score ranging from 400 to 1600; however, these subtests are best characterized as testing separate attributes.

College entrance exams such as the SAT are important to the future of high school students in the United States. These test scores are one criterion—some would argue a major criterion—in college admissions decisions. Because test scores can have a great impact on the lives of students (including whether and where they will attend college), it seems reasonable to assume these tests are a good measure of academic achievement. However, for many students, especially students of color, these tests do not accurately reflect their academic achievement, creating a major barrier to access to higher education: not meeting the selection criteria for college admission.

Since the SAT was first implemented, researchers and educators have noted an ethnic disparity in SAT scores. Reports of average SAT scores by ethnicity have consistently found that European Americans generally score higher than people of color (including African Americans, Latino/a Americans, American Indians, and Asian Americans) on the SAT Verbal and, with only one exception (Asian Americans), on the SAT Math. The current consensus as to the etiology of the problem is that the differences in test scores among ethnic groups are primarily the result of unfair test bias.

Critics of standardized achievement tests (including the SAT) charge that differences in test results are not to the result of discrepancies in ability or achievement among groups (i.e., legitimate group discrimination). Instead, the noticeable statistical difference (i.e., bias) is more a function of how the test is presented, as well as the specific test content (i.e., content that is not relevant to the knowledge or skill being measured), which may be more familiar to some demographic groups (e.g., racial, cultural, or socioeconomic groups) than others. Much of the research examining the ethnic gap in SAT scores has focused on the importance of noncognitive variables such as self-esteem, coping with racism, preference for long-term goals, racial identity, and test preparation.

...