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These four charts show how the College SAT favors rich, educated families
Washington Post ^ | 03/06/2014 | BY ZACHARY GOLDFARB

Posted on 03/06/2014 7:08:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The College Board announced Wednesday that it is overhauling the SAT, dropping the timed essay and focusing less on fancy vocabulary in order to level the playing field a bit for high school students from a wider range of families. The organization's own data show that wealthier Americans, from more educated families, tend to do far better on the best. As do white and Asian Americans, and those students who had the opportunity to take the PSAT in high school before taking the SAT. Almost certainly, these four findings have common origins in that the SAT benefits families who can provide their kids with a better education and more test prep. But here are four charts that show how the SAT advantages specific demographics.

The first chart shows that SAT scores are highly correlated with income. Students from families earning more than $200,000 a year average a combined score of 1,714, while students from families earning under $20,000 a year average a combined score of 1,326. The writing test has the widest score gap, perhaps explaining why College Board officials are dropping the essay.

income

The second chart shows that students from educated families do better. A student with a parent with a graduate degree, for example, on average scores 300 points higher on their SATs compared to a student with a parent with only a high school degree. No doubt this is the same dynamic reflected in the income graph, given that there are high returns to college education. But it also dispels the notion that students in America have good opportunities to advance regardless of the family they're born to.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: college; education; rich; sat; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; zacharygoldfarb
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To: NCLaw441

Oh yes, environment and morality are important factors. But for someone to suggest (as often happens) that the SAT and similar tests are unfair to the underprivileged is bogus reasoning.


41 posted on 03/06/2014 7:59:09 AM PST by Genoa (Starve the beast.)
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To: El Cid
QUOTE: "You must not have done too well on the Math part (800 + 800 = 1600)..."

I was thinking the same thing, but you beat me to it. Probably more of a memory thing, or a typo. Regardless, it is now permanently in cyberspace.

42 posted on 03/06/2014 7:59:50 AM PST by jimmyray
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To: Liberty Wins

you are (or the authors of the study you mentioned) are confusing cause and effect.

think about it.

I could line the walls of a room with 1 million books from birth and it wouldn’t make a group of retarded children smart.

The real truth is that smart people are more likely to own books, and when those smart people have children, those children are more likely to be smart like their parents. The presence of the books wasn’t what was important.

I am guessing that smart people probably make their beds more often than dumb people. Would you believe the results of a study that shows that children that live in homes with their beds made are on average more intelligent? Would you then start encouraging dumb parents to start making their beds to increase the intelligence of their children?


43 posted on 03/06/2014 8:00:30 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: jimmyray
Regardless, it is now permanently in cyberspace.

LOL! You're right. One typo on the keyboard, and it is immortalized forever.

44 posted on 03/06/2014 8:01:37 AM PST by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: Liberty Wins
I use that example in class to demonstrate the maxim

"correlation does not mean causation"

45 posted on 03/06/2014 8:02:06 AM PST by jimmyray
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To: El Cid

that is the ONE thing I REALLY dislike about this particular site. It’s the only site on the internet like this where you can’t edit your past posts.


46 posted on 03/06/2014 8:03:39 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I believe that in one of the Freakonomics books, the authors explored the idea that children raised in homes with more books were more intelligent.

The authors explored the data and concluded that the most important key to intelligence was to have intelligent parents.

47 posted on 03/06/2014 8:03:50 AM PST by Scoutmaster (I'd rather be at Philmont)
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To: El Cid
LOL, "immortalized forever", again, great wordsmithing.

That's one thing I love/hate about FR, their is no edit previous post option.

48 posted on 03/06/2014 8:04:29 AM PST by jimmyray
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To: SeekAndFind

I thought the SAT was all essay questions now?


49 posted on 03/06/2014 8:07:18 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Scoutmaster
Face it, there was a historical reason for the idea of the aristocracy. A group just didn't gain power and create the idea out of whole cloth to keep power forever.

Even before primitive man new anything about DNA and gene's, it instinctively knew that the children of smart people were usually smart too. They were also smart enough to know their very lives depended upon that small group of people with superior intelligence governing society.

50 posted on 03/06/2014 8:10:03 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: SeekAndFind

A chill just went down my back as I started thinking “Chairman Mao and the Great Leap Forward”.


51 posted on 03/06/2014 8:14:14 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

Recasting the lede:

The SAT — an almost universal college entrance gauge — will be dumbed down so that we can pretend morons and slackers are as qualified as intelligent, hard-working applicants.


52 posted on 03/06/2014 8:15:14 AM PST by IronJack
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To: TexasFreeper2009
In my opinion, where European Aristocracy went off the tracks, is when it started aggressively denying opportunity to those from the lower class that showed great potential the ability to move up social ladder to the extent their talents would take them, based solely on the fact of their “lowly” birth.

Everyone should be allowed to ascend as high as their God given talents can take them. To deny them that right is to deny society the benefit of their leadership.

53 posted on 03/06/2014 8:19:22 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

I got my Mom’s great verbal skills and my brother got my Dad’s great math skills so much so that colleges were offering him scholarships as a soph. I am a math mutant.


54 posted on 03/06/2014 8:21:50 AM PST by bjorn14 (Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5:20)
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To: SeekAndFind
Ah, I thought this test was about scholastic aptitude, not intelligence. If you grow up in a milieu that hates school, are you going to like it? If the atmosphere is different, won't the outcome be different? Ask Dr. Ben Carson and his mom and brother, eh?
55 posted on 03/06/2014 8:28:56 AM PST by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: SeekAndFind

Yes, the dumbing down of the SAT continues apace.


56 posted on 03/06/2014 8:32:03 AM PST by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009
you are (or the authors of the study you mentioned) are confusing cause and effect.

The authors of the study said, "the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school."

It's well known that intellectual enrichment is a strong factor in childrens' neurological development.

57 posted on 03/06/2014 8:32:26 AM PST by Liberty Wins ( The average lefty is synapse challenged)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

I would believe a do-gooder such as Michelle Obama starting a campaign to get people to make their beds for that reason.


58 posted on 03/06/2014 8:32:30 AM PST by crazycatlady
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To: Mr. K
"smart" people are smart because they value education.
"dumb" people are dumb because they do not value education.
its pretty simple. A child who grows up in an environment where they see parents reading, studying, working tend to mimic those behaviors.
59 posted on 03/06/2014 8:40:21 AM PST by TxAg1981
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To: SeekAndFind

I didnt do to well on the SATs back in ‘83, not privileged, didnt go to college, joined the workforce and have been working ever since...
Fact is ,,, not every kid is college material . . .


60 posted on 03/06/2014 8:46:52 AM PST by ßuddaßudd
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