Shaquille O'Neal played Neon Bodeaux in the film, Blue Chips. The character said the quote in the title of this piece to his coach Petey Bell, played by Nick Nolte. He was asked by Coach Bell why he had only gotten a 400 on the test and why he never took it again. I see how this line made to the movie.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080826/ap_on_re_us/sat_scores
"Minority students accounted for 40 percent of test-takers,"
"You only had the best of the best taking the test,"..."The SAT has become far more inclusive."
The second half of the quote is by James Hull, a policy analyst for the Center of Public Education. He was referring to the 1970's as the time period in which the "best of the best" were taking the test. So, who are these people Hull refers to as the best? I'm going to go out on a limb and say he wasn't referring to minorities. Isn't the point of public education and the "standardized college entrance exam" to be all inclusive so all of us have the chance to get a higher education, if we choose?
I took the SAT's 5 years ago. The total score you could get was 1600. Presently, the scoring is up to 2400 and there is now a written portion to the test. How can Hull or anyone complain about inclusiveness, when you add 800 total points to the test and give these young adults another section of the test to show their intelligence? If they think too many people are taking the test, simply put, why offer it anymore? The SAT has never been a good gage of what young adults learn throughout their education because everyone child in America doesn't have the same "standard" education. Kids in Massachusetts are having trouble passing the MCAS, how are they going to have a shot at the SAT's which is much broader in scope? They and other kids across the nation, no matter race, color or class, who have not had access to private, parochial or charter schools are at a severe disadvantage.
If you haven't clicked on the link above, there is a graph on the page on the left side that shows the mean or average scores among 3 ethnic groups: Asian, Black and white. Asian students excelled in math and were even in reading and writing. Black students average score didn't crack 450 for either 3 parts of the test. White students tested slightly above average in all three test categories.
So, 54 years after Brown v. The Board of Education (Kansas) and 8 years after George W. Bush "promised" to Leave No Child Behind, how far has this society really come?
If you'd like to contact the College Board, the COMPANY that OWNS the SAT, click http://www.collegeboard.com/html/communications000.html#prof ... they have dozens of email address, phone numbers and address that will get you caught up in the "customer service" web.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Why have grades at all, on anything. Don't keep score at games, even professional sports. It is just unfair that gifted and hardworking people should get better grades, or that gifted athletes should make so much money. No, we should all be the same.
We could attach weights to athletes who are better than others so that they don't have an unfair advantage. We could force attractive people to wear masks covering their faces. They look too good. That gives them an advantage. We could scale down the grades of students who score too high. And lastly, we can confiscate money from hard working successful people, and redistribute it to people who don't want to be bothered to work hard for a living.
Wah wah. Life isn't fair. We had better get started with the fixes. Times a wastin.
Post a Comment