Buying brainpower
By Alex Nickel
When my friends and I first took the SAT we only knew one thing for certain: that we would do well. We knew this not because we necessarily had the innate ability to succeed at such a test, and not because we had more acquired knowledge but rather for the simple fact that our family incomes are relatively high.
Our economic group would have a higher combined average score than any other group. The average student from my economic group (annual family income over $100,000) received a combined score of 1131, whereas the next highest average score was 1085 by the economic group directly below mine (between $80,000 and $90,000). The reason for this difference is money. Money buys acquired knowledge, which allows us to use our innate ability, giving me a better SAT score than someone else not as financially privileged as me.
No two schools are equal in quality of teaching. From this difference in standards come differences in acquired knowledge. JD Hicks from UC-San Diego commented, "Some [high] schools have the sole mission to get students to four year colleges; my school's only mission was to get the kids out the door in four years. The difference in focus makes schools like mine subject to lower SAT scores because there is not the same demand for excellence." More often than not, elite high schools are primarily populated by students whose families are in the middle or upper economic classes.
Even if everyone were able to take SAT prep courses, the SAT would still favor the upper classes because students coming from the upper and middle classes generally have more time. As Stacey Bennett, a low income Chico State student, points out, "Kids from families like mine don't have the luxury of time. I had to work all through high school and then study for school. The SAT was something that I just couldn't put as much time into as some of the other kids who don't have to work."
National statistics point out the fact that higher income correlates with higher education. The higher the education of one's parents, the higher one's scores on the SAT. These parents place more emphasis on the SAT because they want their son or daughter to succeed. National statistics show that SAT scores not only rise with parental education but that there is, again, no instance from 1995 to 2000 where the average child of a lower-educated parent did better than a child of higher-educated parents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Parents are willing to pay for tuition at elite prep academies, for resources and for courses.
The corrupted meritocracy of America is to blame for these inequalities that allow one class to achieve success more easily than another. The only possible way to change this problem is to find a new standard to separate social classes. I, however, have no personal motivation to change this situation because it just so happens that the current arrangement serves me well. Even if I did want the change, I wouldn't know how to go about doing it.