The Expanding Racial Scoring Gap Between Black and White SAT Test Takers

In the 12-year period between 1976 and 1988, the black-white scoring gap on the Scholastic Assessment Test closed significantly. The improvement in black scores was so strong that some educators predicted that within a generation the black-white gap would disappear altogether.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. In fact, since 1988 the racial gap in SAT scores has become wider and there is no compelling evidence that any improvement is in the offing.

In 1976 The College Board published an analysis of the racial differences in scores of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). At that time the average black score was about 240 points, or 20 percent, below the average white score. When The College Board next examined the racial scoring gap in the early 1980s, the gap had shrunk to 200 points. Black scores were then 17 percent lower than white scores. By 1988 the black-white SAT scoring gap was down to 189 points. The trend was encouraging. Many people in the educational community came to believe that in time the racial scoring gap would disappear altogether. But progress in closing the SAT gap stopped abruptly and now it has begun to open up. For each of the past three years the gap between black and white scores on the SAT test has expanded.

In 2002 the average black score on the combined math and verbal portions of the SAT test was 857. The mean white score on the combined math and verbal SAT was 17 percent higher at 1060.



Over the past 15 years there has been only a very small improvement in African-American SAT scores. In 1988 the combined mean score for blacks on both the math and verbal portions of the SAT was 847. By 2002 the average black score had risen only 10 points, or about one percent, to 857. In 2002 the average combined score on the SAT for black students actually dropped by two points from last year.

Despite the small overall improvement of black SAT scores over the past 14 years, the gap between black and white scores has actually increased. In 1988 the average combined score for whites of 1036 was 189 points higher than the average score for blacks. In 2002 the gap between the average white score and the average black score had grown to 203 points. In the past year alone the black-white scoring gap on the SAT increased by two points.

Not only are African-American scores on the SAT far below the scores of whites and Asian Americans, but they also trail the scores of every other major ethnic group in the United States including Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans. In fact, American-Indian and Alaskan native students on average score more than 100 points higher than black students.

Explaining the Black-White SAT Gap

There are a number of reasons explaining the continuing and growing black-white SAT scoring gap. A major factor in the SAT racial scoring gap is family income. There is a direct correlation between family income and SAT scores. For both blacks and whites, as income goes up, so do test scores. Some 28 percent of all black SAT test takers came from families with annual incomes below $20,000. Only 5 percent of white test takers came from low-income families. At the other extreme, 5 percent of all black test takers came from families with incomes of more than $100,000. The comparable figure for white test takers is 24 percent. But income alone does not explain the racial scoring gap. Consider these facts:

• Whites from families with incomes of less than $10,000 had a mean SAT score of 980. This is 123 points higher than the national mean for all blacks.
• Whites from families with incomes below $10,000 had a mean SAT test score that was 46 points higher than blacks whose families had incomes of between $80,000 and $100,000.
• Blacks from families with incomes of more than $100,000 had a mean SAT score that was 142 points below the mean score for whites from families at the same income level.



Clearly, one of the main factors is that black students across the board are not being adequately schooled to take these tests. Public schools in many neighborhoods with large black populations are underfunded, inadequately staffed, and ill equipped to provide the same quality of secondary education as is the case in predominantly white suburban school districts. Many of the black students who graduate from suburban high schools are recent newcomers to the suburbs and received their elementary school education in lower-quality inner-city schools. These students have been placed in a position from which they have been forced to play catch up.

Data from The College Board shows that 52 percent of white students who take the SAT are ranked in the top 20 percent of their high school class. This compares to 32 percent of black test takers. Some 46 percent of white students who take the SAT report that their high school grade point average is in the A range. This compares to only 22 percent of black test takers. These figures alone can explain the large racial scoring gap on the SAT.

Furthermore, data from The College Board confirms that black students who take the SAT have not followed the same academic track as white students. Nearly all blacks and whites who take the SAT have studied algebra in high school. But white SAT test takers are slightly more likely than black SAT test takers to have completed courses in geometry.

In higher level mathematics courses such as trigonometry and calculus, whites hold a large lead. In 2002, 47 percent of white SAT test takers had taken trigonometry in high school compared to 38 percent of black test takers. More than one quarter of white test takers had taken calculus in high school. Only 14 percent of black students had taken calculus, about one half as many as whites. Thirty-three percent of white SAT test takers had taken honors courses in mathematics compared to 20 percent of black SAT test takers.

Similar discrepancies appear in the level of instruction in English, the other major component of the SAT. Some 85 percent of white test takers had completed coursework in American literature compared to 73 percent of black test takers. Nearly three quarters of whites, but only 55 percent of blacks, had taken high school courses in composition. Some 75 percent of whites and 62 percent of blacks had completed coursework in grammar. A full 39 percent of all white test takers had completed honors courses in English compared to 28 percent of black test takers.

Whites were also far more likely than blacks to have taken honors courses in science and social studies. Given the huge differences in course study between black and white high school students, it comes as no surprise that white SAT scores are significantly higher than black SAT scores. Whites, who are more likely to attend high-quality schools, have simply achieved a greater mastery of the subject matter than have blacks.

There are other reasons that contribute to the large scoring gap between blacks and whites on the SAT. These include:

• In many cases black schoolchildren are taught by white teachers who have low opinions of the abilities of black kids from the moment they enter the classroom. These teachers immediately write off black students as academic inferiors and do not challenge them sufficiently to achieve the skills necessary to perform well on standardized tests.
• Black students who study hard are often the subject of peer ridicule. They are accused of "acting white" by other blacks. This so-called "ghetto chic" in the form of peer pressure to shun academic pursuits undoubtedly has a dragging effect on average black SAT scores.
• Black students may be subject to what Stanford psychology professor Claude Steele calls "stereotype vulnerability." Steele contends that black students are aware of the fact that society expects them to perform poorly on standardized tests. This added pressure put upon black students to perform well in order to rebut the racial stereotype in fact makes it more difficult for them to perform well on these tests.
• Black students in some urban schools may be taught an Afrocentric curriculum that may serve to increase black pride and foster an awareness of black culture, but this form of education pays little attention to the subject matters that are covered on the SAT.
• Even middle-class blacks tend to be brought up in basically segregated surroundings. They are not taught the pathways and modes of thinking that are embedded in white culture and reflected in standardized tests. Black families that urge their children to go to college are often first-generation college graduates who grew up in households without the systems that support first-rate academic achievement.
• School administrators and guidance counselors often believe that black students are less capable and less able to learn. They routinely track black students at an early age into vocational training or into a curriculum that is not college preparatory. Black students are rarely recommended for inclusion in gifted education, honors, or advanced placement programs. Once placed on the slow academic track, most black kids can never escape. By the time black students are juniors and seniors in high school, they are typically so far behind their white counterparts in the critical subject areas necessary to perform well on standardized tests that they have little hope of ever matching the scores of whites on the SAT.



Almost No Blacks Among the Top Scorers
on the Scholastic Assessment Test

Before we conclude our report on the black-white SAT scoring gap, it is important to note how these test scores will impact African-American higher education in the event that the current effort to ban race-sensitive admissions at colleges and universities becomes standard practice at all institutions of higher education. Under an admissions system in which race can no longer be used as a positive factor in the admissions process, standardized test scores will almost certainly become a more important component in deciding who is admitted and who is rejected at our leading colleges and universities.

The latest statistics on standardized test scores for college admissions show clearly that if the race-neutral admissions policies now in place in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Washington State are applied nationwide, blacks will be almost totally excluded from admission to the nation's highest-ranked colleges and universities. The reason for this is that only a very tiny percentage of college-bound black students score at the top of the SAT scale.

Under the SAT scoring system, students hoping to qualify for admission to any of the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities and 25 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges need to score at least 700 on each portion of the SAT.

For admission to the very highest ranked, brand-name schools such as Princeton or MIT, applicants realistically need scores of 750 to be considered for admission. Yet, as we shall see, only a minute percentage of black test takers score at these levels. Thus, in a race-neutral admissions environment, high-ranking colleges and universities will choose their first-year students from a pool in which there will be very few blacks.

Let's be more specific about the SAT racial gap among high-scoring applicants. In 2002, 122,684 African Americans took the SAT test. They made up 9.2 percent of all SAT test takers. But only 838 African-American college-bound students scored 700 or above on the math SAT and only 822 scored at least 700 on the verbal SAT. Nationally, 83,689 students of all races scored 700 or above on the math SAT and 59,662 students scored 700 or above on the verbal SAT. Thus, in this top-scoring category of all SAT test takers, blacks make up only 1 percent of the students scoring 700 or higher on the math test and only 1.4 percent of the students scoring 700 or higher on the verbal SAT.

If we eliminate Asians and other minorities from the statistics and compare just white and black students, we find that 5.1 percent of all white SAT test takers scored 700 or above on the verbal portion of the test. But only 0.7 percent of all black SAT test takers scored at this level. Therefore, whites were more than seven times as likely as blacks to score 700 or above on the verbal SAT. Overall, there are more than 43 times as many whites as blacks who scored at least 700 on the verbal SAT.

On the math SAT, only 0.7 percent of all black test takers scored at least 700 compared to 6.2 percent of all white test takers. Thus, whites were nearly nine times as likely as blacks to score 700 or above on the math SAT. Overall, there were 51 times as many whites as blacks who scored 700 or above on the math SAT.

If we raise the top-scoring threshold to students scoring 750 or above on both the math and verbal SAT – a level equal to the mean score of students entering the nation's most selective colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, and CalTech – we find that in the entire country 195 blacks scored 750 or above on the math SAT and 218 black students scored 750 or above on the verbal portion of the test. Nationwide, 26,838 students scored at least 750 on the math test and 20,160 scored at least 750 on the verbal SAT. Therefore, black students make up 0.7 percent of the test takers who scored 750 or above on the math test and 1 percent of all test takers who scored 750 or above on the verbal section.

Once again, if we eliminate Asians and other minorities from the calculations and compare only blacks and whites, we find that 0.18 percent of all black test takers scored 750 or above on the verbal SAT compared to 1.7 percent of all white test takers. Thus, whites were nearly 10 times as likely as blacks to score 750 or above on the verbal portion of the test. Overall, there were 54 times as many whites as blacks who scored at or above the 750 level.

On the math SAT, only 0.16 percent of all black test takers scored 750 or above compared to 1.8 percent of white test takers. Thus, whites were more than 11 times as likely as blacks to score 750 or above on the math SAT. Overall, there were 65 times as many whites as blacks who scored 750 or above on the math section of the SAT.

In a race-neutral competition for the approximately 50,000 places for first-year students at the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities, high-scoring blacks will be buried by a huge mountain of high-scoring nonblack students. Today, under prevailing affirmative action admissions policies, there are about 3,000 black first-year students matriculating at these 25 high-ranking universities, about 6 percent of all first-year students at these institutions. But if these schools operated under a strict race-neutral admissions policy where SAT scores were the most important qualifying yardstick, these universities could fill their freshman classes almost exclusively with students who score at the very top of the SAT scoring scale. As shown previously, black students make up at best between 1 and 2 percent of these high-scoring groups.

If the nation now insists on race-blind college admissions, it must face the near certainty that the percentage of black students at the nation's highest-ranked colleges and universities will drop from the present average of about 6 percent to 2 percent or less.

Black Students Are Also Losing Ground on the ACT Standardized Admission Test

Nearly as many black students now take the ACT college admission test as sign up for the competing SAT examination. But, in common with the more prestigious SAT, the scoring gap between blacks and whites is widening. In addition, almost no blacks score at the very highest level of the ACT performance scale which is generally necessary to win admission to the nation's most prestigious colleges and universities.

The scores of black students on this year's college entrance examination of the American College Testing Program are cause for increased concern. Many students in the Midwest, the Deep South, and the Rocky Mountain states take the ACT test for college admission rather than the Scholastic Assessment Test. And the ACT test is becoming increasingly important to college-bound blacks. The number of black students taking the ACT is up 20 percent from 1998. The rise in the number of African-American students taking the ACT is the result, at least in part, of the fact that a greater percentage of high school students are now preparing for college in the heavily black Deep South states of Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In these states, almost all college-bound students take the ACT test.

Nationwide, 120,311 black students sat for the ACT test in 2002. This is only slightly fewer than the 122,684 black students who took the SAT test this year. If present trends continue, only a few years will pass before more black students nationwide will be taking the ACT test than sitting for the SAT. In 2002 blacks made up 10.8 percent of all ACT test takers. Blacks made up 11.4 percent of all students who took the SAT test.

The Racial Trend in ACT Scores

In 2002 the median score for whites on the ACT was 21.7. (The ACT test is scored on a scale of 0 to 36.) For blacks, the median score was 16.8. Thus, on average, blacks scored 14 percent lower on the ACT than did whites.



The serious fact is that the racial gap on the ACT test has been expanding over recent years. The median scores for both blacks and whites had remained the same for the three years from 1997 to 1999, at 21.7 and 17.1, respectively. But since that time the black score had dropped 0.1 point each year while the white score has held steady at 21.7.

Don Carstensen, vice president for educational services at the American College Testing Program, told JBHE, "The drop in average ACT composite scores for blacks can be attributed to the fact that the number of students who have taken the ACT has increased significantly, creating a more heterogeneous group of test takers. With an expanded pool of test takers comes a broader spectrum of performance. The good news, of course, is that black students are considering going to college."

Few Blacks at the Top of the ACT Scoring Grid

The nation's highest-ranked colleges and universities seek students who score 28 or above on their ACT test. Nationwide, only 1,180 black students scored 28 or above on the ACT test. They made up slightly less than 1 percent of all black ACT test takers. In contrast, 86,831 white students scored 28 or above on the ACT test this year. They made up 11.2 percent of all white ACT test takers. Thus whites were 11 times more likely than blacks to score at a level equal to the mean score of students admitted to the nation's most prestigious colleges and universities. This data tends to show that if colleges and universities were unable to take race into account during the college admissions process – such as is the case today for state-chartered institutions in California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Washington – blacks would be placed at a huge disadvantage for winning any places at the nation's leading institutions.

If we examine ACT scores at the highest scoring levels, we find an even larger disparity. Of the 120,311 blacks who took the ACT test this year, not one scored a perfect score of 36. On the other hand, there were 96 white students who received the highest score of 36.

But here is the most discouraging statistic in this year's ACT report: In 2002 more than 87 percent of all white test takers scored at or above the median score for blacks.

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