With autumn in full swing, high school juniors and seniors nationwide anxiously await their SAT and ACT scores. Recent data suggests there is a difference in the margin of success between those who come from high-income families and those who come from low-income families. This creates an unfair playing field in college admissions, according to cnbc.com.
Students whose parents are in the top 20 percent of income are seven times as likely to score a 1300 or above compared to those whose parents are in the bottom 20 percent of income, according to The New York Times. This outcome is due to the students’ increased access to the resources that can aid them in performing better. Some of these resources include attending well-funded schools and having the ability to take standardized tests multiple times, according to cnbc.com.
Many students from high-income families also have access to private tutors. Though the results may not be as grand as presented, on average, tutoring as a method of test preparation can increase individual test results by at least 50 points, according to washingtonpost.com
Mrs. Christine Gerrity, Co-Director of College Counseling, gave insight on whether or not access to college-prep resources affects a student’s standardized test results. She discussed the progress made in access to resources that help boost scores.
“There are many avenues that demand financial resources,” Mrs. Gerrity said. “But there is a great deal of material for the industrious student at no cost. Many recognized that students without the ability to engage in serious preparation for an exam were clearly at a disadvantage for an exam. So Khan Academy partnered with the College Board and rolled out the carpet for free access to preparation.”
The partnership between the College Board and Khan Academy took place in 2015. Though the accessibility of preparation for standardized tests is growing, there are still many unfair advantages. Those who have access to private tutors can walk through what to expect on the test and effectively approach the test, according to forbes.com. Although private tutoring does not raise standardized test scores exponentially, it does help test-takers solidify confidence in their ability to to take and do well on the test, according to londondaily.news
After COVID-19, many colleges and universities decided to become test-optional, temporarily alleviating the value placed on test scores. This notable change in college admissions gave students more confidence to apply to schools they may never have considered. Consequently, the application pool diversified, and admitted students performed just as well in their classes, according to nbcnews.com. However, for the high school Class of 2026, many colleges have removed the test-optional policy, reducing the application pool. This change continues the gap between applicants from low-income and high-income families, according to usnews.com.
Mrs. Alycia Crane, Co-Director of College Counseling, shared her perspective on the test-optional policy’s effect on high-school students. She emphasized that the option for students to apply without submitting test scores has impacted the applicant pool for colleges nationwide.
“Due to test-optional, a lot more students applied because there might have been some schools where if they had required a test and you had a student who didn’t have a very strong test score, they might decide not to apply,” Mrs. Crane said. “But because many schools became test-optional I think they had a lot of students who would not have applied before who now did apply, ultimately growing the applicant pool dramatically in the past few years for all colleges.”
Featured Image by Catherine Ononye ’27
