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Christopher Emanuel

English 1201

Professor Loudermilk

14 April 2019

Research Project

What if I told you that the important standardized test that high school students take each

year weren’t fair. Growing up in a privileged community I have always heard the test scores of

my peers and wondered why the scores were always higher than the national averages. Even the

very low scores at my schools were still higher or right at the national average. This led me to

wonder why my peers and the people going to my school were also overachieving on these

overly important test. After looking into the numbers and many other statistics it is now clear to

me why this trend occurs with test scores in my community. Many factors other than intelligence

of students are playing huge roles in the scores on these extremely important test. These factors

influencing test are almost all related to the economic status of the student’s families. All in all,

students from poor economic backgrounds do worse on standardized testing than those who are

better off financially because of lack of incentive to do good on the test,lack of access to the test

and lack of access to test review resources.

The first version of the SAT, or the Scholastic Assessment Test was offered to students in

1926. It became very popular about 10 years later in 1933 when Harvard began using the test to

select students that they would admit to their prestigious school. The SAT was very popular

because it finally gave colleges a way to test the intelligence of students regards of their high
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Fig. 1. Graph showing the average test scores of students of the SAT, based off of their family

income.

school education. “By 1942, the SAT had become the standard test for all applicants. The SAT

was administered to over 300,000 people across the country in 1944. The test remained pretty

much unchanged until 2005 when the College Board added the writing section (raising the

highest possible score from 1600 to 2400) and renamed the verbal reasoning section critical

reading”(Lindsay). The SAT is commonly used by many schools on the west coast of the United

States for student applications.

In 1959, Everett Franklin Lindquist , a professor at the University of Iowa, created the

ACT as a competitor for the SAT. Unlike the SAT, the ACT planned to not test overall

intelligence, but to test information that students had learned in school. Another goal of the ACT

was to find the strengths and weaknesses of students. This would allowed college and

universities to get a better understanding of the students looking to be admitted. “It gained

popularity as a college admissions exam in the central and midwestern US where the SAT had

not yet established its dominion”(Lindsay). Since the first test was administered in 1959 many
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things about the test have changed. In 1989 the science test became much more of a problem

solving test, and the social studies part of the test was replaced with a reading section. This

reading section was used to evaluate the comprehension skills of students. The ACT also has an

optional section that they offer as part of their test. Only certain colleges and universities require

students to submit scores for this test, but it was added to the ACT so that the test would have

something to compete with the SAT writing section.

With that being said, both the ACT and SAT are very similar test and both are used for

the same thing my many universities. The goal of both test is to get an accurate representation of

a student’s knowledge and their college readiness. The only factor that should matter on these

critically important test is intelligence, but that is not the case. Both test are affected greatly by

things other than intelligence, such as the economic background that a student comes from. With

these test being so critical to the future of students, something has to be done to make sure these

test become more fair to students from all backgrounds.

Economically better off students do better on these standardized test for a variety of

reasons. The first is because if their parents have a high average income they are also probably

well educated. In 2015, “college graduates, on average, earned 56% more than high school

grads”(Rugaber). College educated workers also have captured most of the new jobs and enjoyed

pay gains in recent years. “A large number of studies reveal substantial returns to cognition,

providing evidence for a positive relationship between abilities and earnings”(Anger, Heineck).

It has also been shown that “cognitive skills may be transmitted by the inheritance of genes, or

nature”(Anger, Heineck). With there being a direct correlation between overall income and

education level the parents providing students with better economic backgrounds are the more
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educated adults. The more educated adults are passing their superior genes down to their

students, and this is benefiting them intellectually. In conclusion, more educated people are the

commonly receiving higher wages, and their intelligence is transferred to their children.

Another reason why the economically better off students have an advantage is because of

their access to the test . Students can take these test as many times as they want and colleges and

universities will take their best score. Some schools even superscore, which means they take the

best score from each section out of all of the test a student has taken. This incentivises students

to take the test as many times as they can. Wealthier students have the ability to take this test

because their parents are willing to pay for it. Some of the students from poor economic

backgrounds sometimes only get one chance to take the test. Both the SAT and ACT cost around

$50 to take so taking the test multiple times can become expensive for parents and students.

Taking the test only once, these students are less comfortable taking it, and they have much more

pressure on them to do good. All of these things combined lead to lower test scores for these

economically worse off students

Economically better off students don’t only have more access to the test, but they also

have better access to test prep services. In my high school students can sign up for a specific

ACT prep class. This class allows students to become more comfortable for the test, and allows

students to

study specific information that will most likely be on the test. This class also creates a great

environment for students to be able to take practice test and ask questions about the standardized

test. Being able to ask questions about little things such as how a normal test day goes allows

students to worry about nothing other than doing well on the test. This is not common because
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Fig. 2. Line Graph showing the correlation between average household income and average test

scores in different sections on the 2009 SAT.

most school systems can’t afford to have a teacher teach a specific class like this. Many students

from wealthier families will also do some kind of ACT prep outside of their school. Whether it

be going to a class or buying a book these students become more well prepared for the test

because of these things. Other students don’t have the ability to get access to these resources.

Just like anything else the more prepared a student is for these test, the better they are going to

do. This is why access to resources is so important and has so much influence on student test

scores.

The last reason that these wealthier students are doing better on standardized test is they

have a lot more incentive to do better on the test. As previously stated, the students that come

from wealthier backgrounds normally have parents who are more educated. Because of that these
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students are normally expected to go to college, and in turn are expected to do good on these

standardized test. Students from less wealthy families sometimes have parents who are less

educated, and because of that some are not expected from their parents to go to college. This lack

Fig. 3. This graph shows SAT scores of students from parents with different educational

backgrounds. As stated above parental educational level has a huge effect on income in

households and the intelligence of children.

of incentive to get any further education makes some students feel like these test don’t matter,

and make them feel like it is not important to try their best. These thoughts contribute to the

lower test scores that they are commonly receiving.

Not everyone agrees that factors other than intelligence sway student’s test scores on

standardized test. They argue that every student is taking the same test, so nothing other than

what they know is determining test scores. This is not true because many factors play a role in

determining test scores. It is very clear through the graphs shown above that there is a correlation

between average family income and average test scores. To back up these statistics there are
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many reasons that economically worse off students don’t do as well. Even though the

information being tested is the same, not all students are prepared in the same way, and not all

students have the same incentive to do good on the test. Some also say that the lack of incentive

is no one’s fault other than the students. To this I would argue that these are kids that we are

talking about. Many of the students taking these test are under the age of 18 and don’t have many

things in their life figured out. It is not fair to blame them for not understanding the significance

of these test if there is no one telling them this information.

Something needs to be done to guarantee each student an equal shot at doing well on

these influential standardized test. Testing organizations and higher institutes of learning need to

come together to improve the system making it more fair for everyone. It is not right to put

students who are already coming from worse economic situations at a disadvantage. Changing

the system will not only allow economically worse off students a better opportunity to do well on

the test, but it will also encourage them to do things to improve their test scores. A changed

standardized testing system will take pressure off students, and encourage them to seek help to

improve their scores of these crucial test.

The first solution to this would be to provide an opportunity for every student to take the

test for free at school at least once. If the test was given for free at school it would allow students

an opportunity to take the test no matter of their family's economic background. Taking the test

for free would also take some pressure off of economically worse off students, because they

would not feel the pressure of money being spent on them when taking the test. This is

something that is already being done in some states, but it should be happening everywhere. In

Ohio ,every high school junior is given a state funded ACT in the spring. Giving students one or
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more state funded test would go a long way in leveling the playing field for students coming

from economically worse off backgrounds.

Another solution would be limiting the number of times that one student can take the

ACT or SAT. Right now students across the United States can take the test as many times as they

are willing to pay for. This gives students who come from wealthier backgrounds a huge

advantage because when a student takes the test multiple times their scores almost always go up.

Also with many colleges superscoring test scores being able to take the test multiple times

almost guarantees that a student’s superscore will go up. While this is good for some students, it

gives them a huge advantage over other students who can’t do anything about it. All of these

students are also all applying to colleges at the same time and being compared to one another.

Giving certain students an advantage doesn’t seem right when less fortunate students are already

fighting an uphill battle. All in all, I think limiting the number of times that a student can take the

ACT or SAT would make the playing field more fair for all students when it comes to

standardized testing.

In conclusion, economically better off students do better on standardized test such as the

ACT and SAT for a variety of reasons.First, these students from wealthier background normally

come from nicer and better off communities. These communities provide these students with and

above average education, and allow them a great opportunity to produce above average

standardized test scores. These wealthier students normally have better access to the test which

allows them to become more comfortable taking it, and allows them to know what to do to

prepare. Their access to test prep resources also allows them to be more prepared when test day

rolls around. They also do better because their parents are normally more educated than others,
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and studies show that intelligence can be passed down from parents to offspring. All in all,

economically worse off students are put at a disadvantage when taking these extremely important

standardized test.

Works Cited

Anger, Silke, and Guido Heineck. “Do Smart Parents Raise Smart Children? The
Intergenerational
Transmission of Cognitive Abilities.” Sinclair College Off-Campus Authentication Form,
2
Feb. 2010,
eds-b-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=1b26b9e
2-e304-46ae-82d1-f0ce2f4b4796%40sessionmgr103. 

Goldfarb, Zachary A. “These Four Charts Show How the SAT Favors Rich, Educated Families.”
The Washington Post​,
WP Company, 5 Mar. 2014,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/03/05/these-four-charts-show-how-the-s
at-favors-the-rich-educated-families/?utm_term=.5229c20c2a2c​.

Lindsay, Samantha. “History of the SAT: Its Many Failures and Controversies.” History of the
SAT: Its Many Failures and Controversies, 20 June 2015,
blog.prepscholar.com/history-of-the-sat-its-many-failures-and-controversies.

Lindsay, Samantha. “The History of the ACT Test.” The History of the ACT Test, 30 June 2015,
blog.prepscholar.com/the-history-of-the-act-test.

Lundstrom, Samuel. “The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the
Earned Income Tax Credit.” Sinclair College Off-Campus Authentication Form, 1 Feb.
2017,
eds-b-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=8a26bd6
3-d0a3-4494-ae8f-2d9dc99cad81%40sessionmgr102.
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Rugaber, Christopher S. “Pay Gap between College Grads and Everyone Else at a Record.” USA
Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 Jan. 2017,
www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/01/12/pay-gap-between-college-grads-and-everyo
n
e-else-record/96493348/. 

Wade, Lisa. “The Correlation Between Income and SAT Scores - Sociological Images.”
Sociological Images Racializing
the Abortion Debate Comments​, 29 Aug. 2012,
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/08/29/the-correlation-between-income-and-s
at-scores/