From: wung@eecom.gatech.edu (Peter Wung)
Subject: Re: Spot the flaw
Reply-To: wung@eecom.gatech.edu
Organization: School of EE, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 18:37:23 GMT

In article 55476@olivea.atc.olivetti.com, rsmith@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Russ Smith) writes:
>Very simple point, I'll give 2 example of similar logic and reasoning
>then sit back and let people point out whats wrong.
>
>
>Assuming there is not a fundamental difference in the ability of people
>of different races to excel academically(no race is "smarter" than the
>others"), we take averages on the SAT score for all races and discover
>blacks score lower on the test than people of other races.
>
>Hypothesis: The SAT is a racially biased test that is written in such
>a way that it is biased against blacks.
>
>
> [Example 2 deleted]
>Russ Smith
>*******************************************************************************
>"Mellow is the man, who knows what he's been missing
>many, many men can't see the open road".
>                                    Over the hills and far away- Led Zeppelin  
>******************************************************************************
>
>
>
>

The SAT started out in life as the entrance requirement for Princeton University.
Most educational institutions in the US had an entrance examination and as
time went by, institutions decided that they wanted to get out of the testing business.
That is how ETS was born, an entrance requirement for a northeastern institution 
geared toward the white, anglo-saxon, male elite of the northeast.  Note that this was an acceptable entrance examination for its time because not everyone went to college.
Most women, minority, or poor did not get to go at all.  After WWII, the GI Bill
and many other sociological developments occured and now the ideal is for college
education to be open to anyone who can get in and afford it.  The democratization
of the attitudes toward higher education was not accompanied by a similar change
in the college entrance exams.  These exams are written in Princeton New Jersey
by people who are intimately involved with ivy league education.  The question is: should the entrance requirement of all the institutions of higher learning be
dictated by an examination geared initially towards the ivy league institutions? 
Should the standards of measure for predicting collegiate successes be based upon 
the tests geared mainly toward a numerically minor segment of the population?  The
SAT, despite its claims, do not actually predict academic success or failure, I
don't believe any test can do this.  All that the SAT does is give admissions
people an idea of how well a person can follow rules and take tests.  In fact, 
institutions of higher education do not generally base their entrance standards 
on SAT or ACT scores.

I firmly believe that the SAT should not be used as a determining factor for 
college admissions, mainly due to its biases, and because I think that no test can
truly give you a truthful picture of a person's ability to perform the work 
necessary in college, due to the cultural biases inherent in the human experience.  But at the same time, I understand a need to base admissions requirements on something quantitative.  There is no real good answer, afterall, how does one measure intelligence and creativity, by forcing applicants to perform in a humorless, biased and mindless examination?  

---
****************************************************************************
*Peter Wung				Email:wung@ee.gatech.edu	   * 
*Electric Power Laboratory		Snail mail: 33787 Ga. Tech Station * 
*School of Electrical Engineering		    Atlanta, GA 30332      *
*Georgia Institute of Technology				    	   *        *Atlanta, Georgia							   *
*   	"Pass, Set, CRUSH!"...						   * 
*  	Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad for a short, fat guy.  		   *
*									   *
****************************************************************************