Group: Ann-Renee Rubia, Samah Islam, and Manuel Sojan
Research Question
Does household income have an effect on the scores of the old and new SAT?
Premise
One of the reasons the new SAT was introduced in March 2016 was to introduce more equity for students of diverse economic backgrounds/household incomes. Many previous studies have indicated that there was a positive correlation between preparedness for the SAT and household income, due to paid SAT coaching, access to more resources, and better funded schools. We wanted to test if the new SAT is in fact more accommodating for students of various socioeconomic statuses. We will achieve this by anonymously surveying freshman students at CCNY, who have taken the new SAT and the old SAT, and asking what their household income is, and compare their household income to the scores of their old and new SAT scores.
Citations
Reed, B. (2015, June 3). The New SAT: Everything You Need to Know. Retrieved October 01, 2017, from http://time.com/3905719/the-new-sat/
From this article we find the reason for why the SAT has changed and that is to put people who are at more disadvantageous station in their lives at equal standing in terms of test taking with others. College board has paired up with Khan Academy to provide tutoring for students free of charge whereas in the past with the “Old SAT” students falling into certain brackets of income could hardly afford such fees for tutoring. The original five answer choice has shortened to only four, there are less breaks between sections, and the exam has become more reading heavy, however the exam may not easier it strives to be “fairer.”
- Z. (2014, October 7). SAT Scores and Income Inequality: How Wealthier Kids Rank Higher . Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/URLs_Cited/OT2015/14-981/14-981-12.pdf
According to this article, students with a higher family income (not necessarily wealthy or rich) outscore students who have a smaller sum of money brought into their homespace. One might think the household earning increases students test scores because of their ability to afford tutoring and SAT prep, however research finds that such prep only increases students scores in math and reading sections by a dozen points at max.
Dixon-Román, Ezekiel J., et al. “Race, Poverty and SAT Scores: Modeling the Influences of Family Income on Black and White High School Students’ SAT Performance.” Teachers College Record, vol. 115, no. 4, Apr. 2013, pp. 1-33. EBSCOhost,
ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=87024881&site=ehost-live.
One person interviewed in this article claimed that income level didn’t affect the student’s performance on their exams, rather their social and emotional state. From that one would assume she expected that students in lower brackets of income were less stable. In this article as one reads further, we find that the researchers in this article look into reasons for why students with less income would be performing at a lower level than their wealthier counterparts. They blame it on nutrition, or lack of drive, or lack of health insurance. Though this is a cause for why students in a lower income bracket may have a more “unstable” emotional or social state it is not cause for providing evidence for why lower income has a direct linkage to SAT performance. Health insurance for instance, as brought up in the article, really shouldn’t be in an article focusing on SAT scores. For that, this article is not one that should be considered.
Hoover, E. (2016, March 18). What students said right after taking the new SAT. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 62(27), A6. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=cuny_ccny&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA448900503&asid=29a16508705ea8846cd4c564441e6cb7
In this article, Hoover gathered the opinions of the new SAT from high school students on social media. Many of the students who tweeted their opinions of the new SAT lamented over the difficulty of the test. Surveys conducted by Kaplan Test Prep showed that 59% of the students who were surveyed felt that the test had straightforward questions, 58% felt that the test was lengthy and “tiring”, and 56% thought that the exam “somewhat” tested for what was taught in high school. Further surveying by the College Board revealed that students preferred the new SAT to the old SAT in a 6:1 ratio. Additionally, four out of five students felt that the vocabulary introduced in the new SAT, which the College Board said would be more practical or useful in the future was indeed so, in comparison to the one in two students who thought that the old SAT vocabulary would be useful.
Hoover, E. (2014, March 14). Plans for New SAT Spark Mixed Reviews. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 60(26). Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=cuny_ccny&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA364442620&asid=b86279ecd60f0e085cccac11d0e8dbfe
This article, taken from the Chronicle of Higher Education, focused on identifying and analyzing the necessity of the revisions of the new SAT (introduced in 2016), from the point of view of educators. Some of the major changes introduced in the new SAT were more “evidence-based” reading and writing passages (requiring students to finding supporting evidence for their claims/answers to the exam questions), a more diverse range of mathematical subjects, and an optional essay. One criticism/question about the new SAT that was brought up in this article was if the new SAT is any better of an indicator towards success in college, in comparison to the old SAT. This criticism was especially directed towards the essay portion of the essay. David Coleman, the president of the College Board, admits that the essay portion of the SAT does not augment the predictive validity of the test. The essay portion of the test is additionally criticized because it may deter some students from applying to certain schools, which may require this portion of the SAT. Altogether, the new SAT has had many mixed reviews from many educators, admission officers, and directors of colleges.
Lin, Y., Clough, P. J., Welch, J., & Papageorgiou, K. A. (2017). Individual differences in mental toughness associate with academic performance and income. Personality and Individual Differences, 113, 178+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=cuny_ccny&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA489037234&asid=263d8fac0693e9e5e42949aaf07e2a26
Mental toughness has to do with an individual’s ability to handle stressful or challenging situations, similar to resilience or persistence. Mental toughness is usually conceptualized or defined by the 4 C’s: the levels of an individual’s commitment, challenge, control and confidence. In this study/experiment, it was hypothesized that income and mental toughness would be positively correlated. This can be applied to the SAT because it is often a stressful “rite of passage” for high school students as they approach higher levels of education. It was found in this study that there is a significant, positive correlation between income and mental toughness. The challenge in applying this information to our study/experiment is that it evaluated the income of people who were already in the workforce, not family income (which our study is testing for).
Graham, LaConda T., “Factors that Impact Performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) between Urban High School Seniors and their Parents.” (2008). Counselor Education Master’s Theses. Paper 41.
http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=edc_theses
This study sought to investigate the several factors that affected the scores of urban high school seniors taking the (old) SAT. In particular, the research focused on the effect of parents’ education on SAT scores, and why urban high schoolers performed worse academically and on the SAT compared to their suburban counterparts. In the U.S., urban students score lower on SATs than their suburban counterparts, according to numerous research. The study was conducted by using a survey that asked high school seniors about their parents’ educational level as well as about their test preparation. The results showed that 59 percent of the parents in urban areas in the northeast region lacked the education—only 13 percent have a college degree—and knowledge needed to inform their children about the SAT exam. Thus, logically, it makes sense as to why students form urban high schools performed worse than those from suburban areas, which are much more educated. While this study focused more on the parents’ education level, education and income level are related, because usually a more educated household tend to have a higher income. This piece of information is vital to our own study. The source is from the College at Brockport and is a Master’s thesis, so it is a credible and valuable source.
- R. Sackett, N. R. Kuncel, A. S. Beatty, J. L. Rigdon, W. Shen, T. B. Kiger. The Role of Socioeconomic Status in SAT-Grade Relationships and in College Admissions Decisions. Psychological Science, 2012
This peer-reviewed study, from the University of Minnesota, sought to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status, high school grades, college admissions and college freshman GPA. The data sets were obtained from Collegeboard and from the University of California. One of the key findings was that socioeconomic status and SAT scores are positively correlated, and the researchers noted that this could be because a higher income means a student has better access to SAT coaching and other educational programs. This finding from the study is useful to our research investigation. However, another finding of this study is in contrast with the popular notion that SAT scores aren’t good predictors of academic performance in college. While this finding does not necessarily apply to our research question, it is nevertheless a surprising revelation.
