As students busy themselves with homework, sports, and jobs, tests like the ACT and SAT can feel as if they’ve come out of nowhere. IHS provides a PSAT for Juniors and study books in the library, but should it be doing more? With studies showing a direct correlation between family income and standardized test scores, better resources could help to level the playing field. In 2004, a study conducted by the College Board found that students from families earning more than $200,000 a year average a composite score of 1714 out of 2400, significantly higher than the average composite score of 1326 from students from families making under $20,000 a year. This study also recorded an advantage for white and Asian students and students whose parents have a college education. Higher scores on standardized tests can significantly increase students’ chance of getting into college, and in a country where a college degree plays a huge part in determining someone’s success, it is necessary to bridge this gap in privilege.
A huge advantage in doing well on the SAT or ACT is having a tutor to go over test taking strategies and material teachers might not have covered. However, this opportunity is not available to everyone. With the baseline options at services like Kaplan costing over $500, there aren’t many options for the majority of students at IHS. Some high schools, like Newport Harbor in California, have begun to offer a program called ePrep, an online study program. ePrep provides students with full length practice tests and allows them to review their results. Students can also watch videos from tutors advising the best ways to approach certain questions. Other schools lead study groups after school once or twice a week. While hiring tutors might not be possible for IHS, organizing study groups or enrolling students in ePrep could be. If students had a place and designated time to study with others or practice questions, it would not only improve scores for all students but also reduce stress that often surrounds these tests.
ePrep would be a very useful option to underprivileged students, but in-person tutoring allows for personalization of lessons and more in-depth analysis of systematic errors. As such, IHS students would be greatly benefited by having tutors, and a way in which IHS could provide tutors to underprivileged students would be to partner with IHS’ National Honors Society (NHS) chapter to create a student-led tutoring program. NHS members, who must fulfill mandatory community service hours to maintain membership, could work one-on-one with underclassmen after school to provide specialized attention in specific subject areas. Student-led tutoring already exists at IHS, and NHS members could provide valuable insight and guidance to students with little experience or support in the college application process.
A different step that IHS could take to level the playing field for socioeconomically disadvantaged students would be to offer monthly full-length practice SAT or ACT exams. Currently, the PSAT 10 and PSAT are the only two full-length exams offered to students to prepare for actual standardized testing. However, the designation of these exams as preparatory material is somewhat problematic—the PSAT has major implications for students, connecting them with a multitude of scholarship opportunities, and students should be aware of its format and content before they take the test. For this reason, IHS should offer monthly practice tests to students in all grades looking to get a head-start to college preparation. In addition to preparing students for the content that appears on standardized tests, offering tests in a timed setting would familiarize them with the test setting and time constraints of real exams. This would be a small and inexpensive program for school administration to create, given that many previously used exams are available for free to educators and school districts, but it would have extremely positive implications for the IHS student body.
Another step that IHS could take to improve standardized testing resources would be to simplify the process of receiving used testing materials. After students take the PSAT, they are supposed to receive their test booklets for use as study material and to analyze mistakes made on the test. However, at IHS, due to a lack of organization in student services, students were repeatedly turned away after their requests to acquire these materials. Students have the right to receive their PSAT test booklets, and IHS administration should simplify the process of acquiring them so that all IHS students are prepared for later standardized tests.
Finally, IHS students should have access to greater information about standardized testing to better inform the important decisions that they make in this process. The SAT and ACT are two distinct testing options, each testing slightly different skills and featuring different sections, and students would benefit from knowing these differences early on in their high school careers to better prepare them for the college application process. Similarly, many students are unaware of the necessity and importance of taking SAT subject tests. Since requirements vary from college to college, guidance counsellors should inform students of their individual subject testing needs depending on their intended career paths. Also, teachers should be encouraged to remind students to sign up for these exams and inform students of their preparedness to take exams. One example that freshmen frequently encounter is that many Regents and Honors Biology students take the Biology SAT subject test without knowledge of many topics and skills that are prominently featured on the exam; it would be beneficial for students to be aware of this before making a decision to take an exam. One final small change that IHS administration could make would be to more prominently advertise testing dates and locations. Although dates are included in a yearly packet sent to students and can be found on a poster near the main office, having email reminders would be more effective in reaching students and their families.
In a society and a nation in which test scores have large influence over the ability of students to pursue certain career paths, it is imperative that schools offer better resources to level socioeconomic gaps in the ability to improve and acquire information about tests. IHS has shown its commitment to making testing resources available to students by offering two free tests and some print resources, but these steps are not enough.