MH Annotated Bib

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Marshall HopkinsAnnotated Bib.

Many colleges today have requirements that a student must fulfill while applying to their

schools. Most common items along with the application include a high school transcript,

SAT scores, recommendations, essays, and maybe even an interview. But which methoddo they rely on most when recruiting students? Although colleges and universitiesconsider the observation as a whole, the major piece of information they consider is the

SAT score. For elite colleges if a score is average to high it makes it harder for anAdmissions Office to make a decision. If the score is poor, it makes it easier for them to

deny. SAT scores are merely numbers and for minorities, such as African-Americans, thebar for the scores is lowered. African-American students tend to get lower SAT scores

than Caucasians. However; instead of lowering the bar for African-American students,resources such as SAT Prep should be more available and less costly.Black, Paul. Testing: Friend or Foe?. Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1998. Print.

The audience of Black are teachers, college and policy-makers. In his book he ispointing out the issues of assessments such as the SAT. Black, a university

teacher, discusses his personal experiences and research of assessments such asthe SAT test. He also explains the growth of the standardized tests and the

reactions against the multiple-choice sections. There are many factors that couldcontribute to taking a bad test. In Chapter 8, titled Pupils and Assessment, the

author talks about the feelings of pupils who are taking the test. That doesntmean that a person is less intelligent. It may just mean that the person is not a

good test taker, or has some unreleased stress, or pressure that could make them

nervous. Tests such as the SAT shouldnt be greatly relied on by Elite CollegeAdmissions offices during the recruiting process. In his book, Black states thatstandardized tests are designed to measure well defined constructs and to give

scores which are interpretable in relation to population norms (78). Collegesutilize these tests to create a standard and compare test takers to others.

Sacks, Peter. Standardized Minds. Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1999. Print.

Sacks intends for a general audience that very well may include AdmissionsOffices, Educational Testing Researchers, or anyone who has taken the SAT. His

audience could also include students, parents, or teachers. In his book, he explores

how standardized testing has affected us from kindergarten all through theapplying for occupations. He suggests that other forms of assessment should betaken more into consideration other than just college assessment tests. I agree and

also believe that college applications should stress more on the work done in HighSchool and personal skills. For elite schools, interviews should be more important

to get better understandings of the students trying to get into their schools. Sacksdeclares in his first sentence of Chapter 9 that the standardized tests in which

Americans have placed so much trust have no proven to be particularly


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trustworthy indicators of individual human potential (201). The truth is testscores range along several different populations such as race, gender, and even

class. So why arent the proper resources being made available for the ones whoarent meeting those higher scores. There are a few chapters (9-12) that will be

very beneficial to my research paper.

Stanovich, Keith, and . What Intelligence Tests Miss. New Haven: Yale University Press,2009. Print.

Stanovich is writing this book to an audience including anyone who is interested

in human knowledge. The author is arguing that tests such the SAT or IQ do notadequately portray the intelligence of a human being. In my research paper, I will

be arguing that tests, specifically the SAT, are not nearly as important asAdmissions Offices of Elite Schools intend them to be. Stanovich agrees that the

measures defined by these tests are incomplete. One very important cognitivetest is in chapter six. The test goes as follows: Consider the following

problemJack is looking at Anne but Anne is looking at George. Jack is marriedbut George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

(Stanovich 70). The answers are A) Yes B) No or C) Cannot be determined. Thisis a very good test that shows how people think. According to Stanovich, 80

percent people of people will choose C however the answer is A. Because Annecan be married or unmarried and it wouldnt matter because Jack is married and

George is not. This is an interesting test that I may want to include in my researchpaper. Intelligence tests dont tell about who a person is and thats really what

needs to be examined during the college recruiting process.

http://www.jbhe.com/about.html." http://www.jbhe.com/about.html. (2005): n. page.

Web. 2 Nov. 2012.

In this article, it describes the performance of African-American students. Theauthor claims that scores of African-Americans have averaged lower than two

decades ago. The author goes on to say that in the years to come the scores ofAfrican-Americans will increase because of the Writing section on the SAT test.

Also in this article shows a graph of the performance of both Caucasians andAfrican-Americans in the past 20 years or so. The article also claims that the

reason that Caucasian test takers are getting higher scores because they havehigher family incomes. This may create a new dimension for me in my research

paper that consists of the effects that money has on test takers. This article is filled

with statistics that show the possibilities of why Caucasians get higher SAT testscores than African-Americans.


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Miller, Haleigh. "Expensive SAT prep is unfair to many students." Scroll. 2011: n. page.Web. 2 Nov. 2012. .

In this article the author discusses some of the disadvantages that students face by

not receiving the proper SAT preparation. The main reason is that not all familiescan afford the cost of getting a tutor to help the students before the SAT. That isalready creating a disadvantage for some students to others. That ties into a point

from the JBHE that claimed that African-American students from less fortunatefamilies are doing worst on standardized tests than Caucasian students from

wealthier students. To begin her article, Haleigh starts off with a impressivequotation from Jason Shah. He states Families shouldnt have to spend the

equivalent of a college classes tuition just to get ready to take the SAT. Hemakes a valid point. There is a problem that not all test takers are getting

preparation for the test because they cannot afford. I propose that a solution forthat be that more resources need to become available for students whose families

cannot afford the costly tutoring that some students get. The government isspending billions of dollars for our armed forces so why cant it spend the same

amount for the people who will ultimately be our future. Resources should bemade available so all test-takers have an equal shot of success on the SAT test.

"Racial Differences-Standardized Tests and Race." n.d. n. page. Web. 2 Nov. 2012.

.

Why do minority students do so poorly on standardized tests? Many studies havebeen done to answer this question. In this article, we find about what ethnicities

and intellectual performances. One explanation is that minority students are notmotivated to do well on these types of tests (Racial Diff.- Stand. Tests and

Race). Some negative stereotypes are mentioned and how they may influence atest-taker not to dis his or her best. Stereotypes that include Africans Americans

are not smart in reading discourage students while taking tests such as the SAT.This article can be beneficial to me as I think to propose a solution to what can be

done for African-American students to begin thinking in a new mindset. Possiblecounter-argumentation can be found in The Bell Curve written by Richard

Hernstein and Charles Murray. These author claim that intellectual differences arebased on the genetic distinctions between ethnicities.

http://www.studypoint.com/ed/sat-history/

http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/sat-act-history.html

http://www.voxxi.com/minority-students-florida-sat-standards

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