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so we had to come up with a bill to present to my civics class, while people came up with pro-marijuana, pro-tax bills i decided to do a bill regarding the SAT's

i thougt that maybe public colleges, should not make standardized test scores mandatory for admission for those with low incomes (below poverty level)...my intention was to try and close the sat gap between the poor (usually of color) and the upper class.

as i thought more in depth about it i thought that this was potential a HORRIBLE IDEA...was it a bad idea, or is it decent? Just curious, any comments will be appreciated.

By Vision (Vision) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 01:11 am: Edit

they waiver the fee for SATs for people who can not afford it or have a low income

By Magoo (Magoo) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 01:47 am: Edit

yes you are right, but i was refering to sat prep...nowadays you can buy books, take courses, or have tutors help you with this. However this all costs a lot of money; money that people with low income don't have...also i wanted people with low incomes to be able to focus on EC's and their course load instead of worring about a test score. (poor students score significantly less than suburban students - about 200 pts).

By Northstarmom (Northstarmom) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 10:18 am: Edit

I think you have good intentions, but there are better ways of achieving your goals.

The reason that so many low income students score low on the SATs is that so few of them are going to schools that are do an adequate job of preparing students for college. In addition, relatively few low income students take rigorous courses such as AP and IB curricula. The rigor of the curriculum is the factor that has the highest correlation with high SAT scores.

There are many low income students who study hard in their schools and get straight A averages but have very low SAT scores because their schools haven't bothered to teach them adequately.

Anyway, instead of waiving the APs, it would be more effective to mandate that all students with a certain gpa in a college prep program have an opportunity to take a certain number of AP courses in their high schools. At the very least, I think that all students with at least a 3.0 in a college prep program should be able to take AP English.

I also think that there should be some incentive to schools to encourage the students to take the AP course and to pass it.

Perhaps the bill that I think would work would be to provide a pot of $ to strengthen and expand AP services to low income students.

By Magoo (Magoo) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 12:41 pm: Edit

WHY CAN'T I HAVE YOUR BRAIN!!? very great proposal, after i turned my bill in i really felt like i did not think it through... sigh wish me luck today.

By Shhh (Shhh) on Thursday, May 06, 2004 - 03:53 pm: Edit

i have a low income...its called the public library. it would be ridiculous to make people take the SATs based on their income.

total amount of money spent on SAT prep- $0
well unless if you count gas money...but some people can walk to their local library. oh yea...and money for paper...i guess... $1.

" In addition, relatively few low income students take rigorous courses such as AP and IB curricula. The rigor of the curriculum is the factor that has the highest correlation with high SAT scores. "

actually its the opposite. people in lower level classes are constantly given vocab words to memorize and still know basic algebra, arithmetic, and geometry. This is what the SAT tests. The SAT doesnt test Calc, or Reading Analysis, or whatnot. so AP actually makes it HARDER to score high on the SAT due to the fact that the basic things you need to know for the SAT have been covered up with years of more complicated things like Calculus.

Maybe the low income/bad SAT corrolation is due to lack of motivation due to learned helplessness. Also due to the fact that their school system SUCKS