SAT Scores and Race

[RufusAtticus]

I just read an intersting remark on the AJC website.

A reader remarked that Georgia has lower scores than average because we have a large African American population. And nationally African Americans score worse on the SATs than Whites. Comparing ethnicity to ethnicity, Georgia doesn't look as bad compared to other states.

It was an interesting remark, and I'm curious if anyone knows of any studies of SAT scores that control for "cultural/ethnic" variation.

I know of one study from Bolling Green that concluded that average SAT score was inversely related to percentage of students taking the test.

[Loren Pechtel]

Originally posted by RufusAtticus
I just read an intersting remark on the AJC website.

A reader remarked that Georgia has lower scores than average because we have a large African American population. And nationally African Americans score worse on the SATs than Whites. Comparing ethnicity to ethnicity, Georgia doesn't look as bad compared to other states.

It was an interesting remark, and I'm curious if anyone knows of any studies of SAT scores that control for "cultural/ethnic" variation.

I know of one study from Bolling Green that concluded that average SAT score was inversely related to percentage of students taking the test.

I don't know about data on it but I would expect the SAT score to inversely relate to the number of test takers. This is because the people who take the test are the better students. The more people who take the test the deeper into the barrel you are going--bringing in poorer and poorer students.

[AtheistSalmon]

They cannot help it if they are poor and do not have access to descent education systems, some of them anyways. Let's say that Whites were enslaved and denied education, and later in US history told to sit in the back of buses and told they were not shit -- maybe (or not) the White SAT scores would be lower today.
Uneducated whites have inadequate SAT scores too. Remember the USA scores worse than most countries when it comes to education; there exists an attitude that if one is making money then education is unimportant, the American fallacy. One in five Americans cannot read, and something like one in a hundred do not read beyond k-12 level, or the newspaper comics. Ninety-five percent of Americans are scientifically illiterate, and the last US president to have a working knowledge of science may have been Thomas Jefferson. :rolleyes:

[N.Wells]

the last US president to have a working knowledge of science may have been Thomas Jefferson.

Not that this is one to be proud of, but Hoover was an accomplished engineer and geologist. He also translated Agricola's text on mining. Jimmy Carter was conversant with nuclear engineering.