Introduction
Racism has plagued American society since our forefathers began importing slaves from Africa over three centuries ago. Although blacks have gradually seen significant improvement of their legal status, their integration into American culture and society remains incomplete. Indeed, racial concerns continue to challenge even the greatest of our contemporary social scientists.
Race touches many issues in modern America. One area of intense debate involves standardized tests. This report will concentrate on two important tests, the SAT and the IQ test. Test advocates claim that standardized tests perform two essential tasks. First, standardized tests, as their name implies, provide all students, regardless of the quality of their school or its standards of grading, the opportunity to compete with other students in the same arena, so to speak. Second, test-makers assert that performance on standardized tests is highly correlated with performance in higher academic settings.
Education is seen in America as the vehicle to professional success. Because most educators and many employers utilize standardized tests in evaluating candidates for admission or jobs, success on standardized tests is critical to a student's future. Blacks and Hispanics typically score lower on standardized tests than whites, who in turn score lower than people of Asian descent. The discrepancy between the scores of whites and blacks has led some critics to conclude that bias must exist in the tests themselves. It is argued that the bias against minorities reflects a type of racism, resulting in lower achievement that further perpetuates their inferior status in America.
Does bias exist in standardized tests? Are there discrepancies in the inherent levels of intelligence of different racial groups? Rather, does the perspective from which the tests are written prevent blacks and minorities from expressing their true intellectual potential? Or could it be that socioeconomic status rather than race is the key issue in this whole debate? Using the most recent available data on the SAT and the IQ test, we hope to provide you with a better understanding of these controversial, yet critical, questions.
Government 375: Educational Reform and Ideology