During junior year everyone is faced with an impending doom:ACT or SAT. These scores have the potential to change a student’s future, yet, we Piedmonters are luckier than most. We have access to countless programs in the form of in-person and online tutoring that promise to “raise your SAT scores by at least 100 points.” We can afford to buy the “Official SAT Study Guide” for $31.99 or the online The Princeton Review SAT Prep course for $1,099. We can pay the extra money for a tutor to teach us how to take the test and most of us will improve our score because the standardized tests are only slightly based upon how well you problem solve and mostly focus on how good you are at taking standardized tests.
The standardized testing system is stacked in favor of the economically privileged; putting students of lower socioeconomic status at a disadvantage, according to the News Leader article “The complicated correlation between poverty and lower test scores.” The College Board needs to replace the current standardized testing that focuses on prep for a specific test with one that concentrates on critical thinking. This way lower-income students, as well as those who are economically privileged, have a chance to succeed.
Standardized tests can be the gateway to college for lower income students. It supposedly gives them a chance to show admissions officers that even if they went to a less rigorous high school, they deserve to attend college and can handle the rigor of college classes.
The College Board does get rid of testing registration fees for lower income students. However, even though over 50% of students who take standardized tests are eligible for free lunch and are therefore eligible for a free test waiver, only 25% of students actually took a free standardized test in 2016, according the New York Times article “Simple Way to Help Low-Income Students: Make Everyone Take SAT or ACT.”
Additionally, even though the test itself is free, lower income students can not afford all test prep, including study materials and tutoring. These test prep materials have the potential to raise one’s score on standardized tests. The College Board, however, takes advantage of this discrepancy by selling prep books for as high as $31.99. The College Board therefore continues to make an incredible profit from the test prep materials that it offers. Even though the College Board is a “nonprofit”, its earnings are 317% of the industry average and Gaston Caperton, its former President, earned 444% of the industry average and a compensation of $1.3 million last year, according to the The New Brunswick Patch article “The College Board: A Very Profitable ‘Nonprofit.’” In addition, the twenty-three top executives make an average of $355,271 per year.
This discrepancy would not matter if tutoring or the standardized testing prep books specifically created by College Board were not vital in determining the students performance on the test. For years, the College Board claimed that tutoring did not cause an increase in the student’s score. Conveniently, as soon as Khan Academy, a free program that is available to most students, came out with a test prep program, the College Board suddenly changed its statement on May 9, 2017, claiming that tutoring does make a difference, according to the Washington Post article “Can coaching truly boost SAT scores? For years, the College Board said no. Now it says yes.” Furthermore, there is a direct correlation to access of test prep books and how well students perform on standardized tests, according to research by Meredith Broussard published in The Atlantic. This is because the standardized tests often directly reflect the information contained in the test prep books published by the large testing company.
Every student, no matter what their economic status, deserves to step into the room on testing day knowing that they are just as prepared as any other student around them. The College Board cannot be allowed to continue to disadvantage lower income students by creating tests whose success relies on the purchase of prep tutoring and materials. We cannot allow them to hide under the title “nonprofit” as they continue to exploit students for their own gain. In order to do this, the focus of standardized testing needs move away from test taking skills and focus on comprehension of the concepts themselves. It is our obligation and duty to even the testing field for all students.
