Marshall Hopkins Annotated Bib.

Many colleges today have requirements that a student must fulfill while applying to their schools. Most common items along with the application include a high school transcript, SAT scores, recommendations, essays, and maybe even an interview. But which method do they rely on most when recruiting students? Although colleges and universities consider the observation as a whole, the major piece of information they consider is the SAT score. For elite colleges if a score is average to high it makes it harder for an Admissions Office to make a decision. If the score is poor, it makes it easier for them to deny. SAT scores are merely numbers and for minorities, such as African-Americans, the bar for the scores is lowered. African-American students tend to get lower SAT scores than Caucasians. However; instead of lowering the bar for African-American students, resources such as SAT Prep should be more available and less costly. Black, Paul. Testing: Friend or Foe?. Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1998. Print. The audience of Black are teachers, college and policy-makers. In his book he is pointing out the issues of assessments such as the SAT. Black, a university teacher, discusses his personal experiences and research of assessments such as the SAT test. He also explains the growth of the standardized tests and the reactions against the multiple-choice sections. There are many factors that could contribute to taking a bad test. In Chapter 8, titled Pupils and Assessment, the author talks about the feelings of pupils who are taking the test. That doesnt mean that a person is less intelligent. It may just mean that the person is not a good test taker, or has some unreleased stress, or pressure that could make them nervous. Tests such as the SAT shouldnt be greatly relied on by Elite College Admissions offices during the recruiting process. In his book, Black states that standardized tests are designed to measure well defined constructs and to give scores which are interpretable in relation to population norms (78). Colleges utilize these tests to create a standard and compare test takers to others. Sacks, Peter. Standardized Minds. Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1999. Print. Sacks intends for a general audience that very well may include Admissions Offices, Educational Testing Researchers, or anyone who has taken the SAT. His audience could also include students, parents, or teachers. In his book, he explores how standardized testing has affected us from kindergarten all through the applying for occupations. He suggests that other forms of assessment should be taken more into consideration other than just college assessment tests. I agree and also believe that college applications should stress more on the work done in High School and personal skills. For elite schools, interviews should be more important to get better understandings of the students trying to get into their schools. Sacks declares in his first sentence of Chapter 9 that the standardized tests in which Americans have placed so much trust have no proven to be particularly

trustworthy indicators of individual human potential (201). The truth is test scores range along several different populations such as race, gender, and even class. So why arent the proper resources being made available for the ones who arent meeting those higher scores. There are a few chapters (9-12) that will be very beneficial to my research paper. Stanovich, Keith, and . What Intelligence Tests Miss. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Print. Stanovich is writing this book to an audience including anyone who is interested in human knowledge. The author is arguing that tests such the SAT or IQ do not adequately portray the intelligence of a human being. In my research paper, I will be arguing that tests, specifically the SAT, are not nearly as important as Admissions Offices of Elite Schools intend them to be. Stanovich agrees that the measures defined by these tests are incomplete. One very important cognitive test is in chapter six. The test goes as follows: Consider the following problemJack is looking at Anne but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person? (Stanovich 70). The answers are A) Yes B) No or C) Cannot be determined. This is a very good test that shows how people think. According to Stanovich, 80 percent people of people will choose C however the answer is A. Because Anne can be married or unmarried and it wouldnt matter because Jack is married and George is not. This is an interesting test that I may want to include in my research paper. Intelligence tests dont tell about who a person is and thats really what needs to be examined during the college recruiting process. http://www.jbhe.com/about.html." http://www.jbhe.com/about.html. (2005): n. page. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. In this article, it describes the performance of African-American students. The author claims that scores of African-Americans have averaged lower than two decades ago. The author goes on to say that in the years to come the scores of African-Americans will increase because of the Writing section on the SAT test. Also in this article shows a graph of the performance of both Caucasians and African-Americans in the past 20 years or so. The article also claims that the reason that Caucasian test takers are getting higher scores because they have higher family incomes. This may create a new dimension for me in my research paper that consists of the effects that money has on test takers. This article is filled with statistics that show the possibilities of why Caucasians get higher SAT test scores than African-Americans.

Miller, Haleigh. "Expensive SAT prep is unfair to many students." Scroll. 2011: n. page. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://www.scrollonline.net/2011/03/07/perspectiveexpensive-sat-prep-is-unfair-to-many-students/>. In this article the author discusses some of the disadvantages that students face by not receiving the proper SAT preparation. The main reason is that not all families can afford the cost of getting a tutor to help the students before the SAT. That is already creating a disadvantage for some students to others. That ties into a point from the JBHE that claimed that African-American students from less fortunate families are doing worst on standardized tests than Caucasian students from wealthier students. To begin her article, Haleigh starts off with a impressive quotation from Jason Shah. He states Families shouldnt have to spend the equivalent of a college classes tuition just to get ready to take the SAT. He makes a valid point. There is a problem that not all test takers are getting preparation for the test because they cannot afford. I propose that a solution for that be that more resources need to become available for students whose families cannot afford the costly tutoring that some students get. The government is spending billions of dollars for our armed forces so why cant it spend the same amount for the people who will ultimately be our future. Resources should be made available so all test-takers have an equal shot of success on the SAT test. "Racial Differences-Standardized Tests and Race." n.d. n. page. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://social.jrank.org/pages/529/Racial-Differences-Standardized-TestsRace.html>. Why do minority students do so poorly on standardized tests? Many studies have been done to answer this question. In this article, we find about what ethnicities and intellectual performances. One explanation is that minority students are not motivated to do well on these types of tests (Racial Diff.- Stand. Tests and Race). Some negative stereotypes are mentioned and how they may influence a test-taker not to dis his or her best. Stereotypes that include Africans Americans are not smart in reading discourage students while taking tests such as the SAT. This article can be beneficial to me as I think to propose a solution to what can be done for African-American students to begin thinking in a new mindset. Possible counter-argumentation can be found in The Bell Curve written by Richard Hernstein and Charles Murray. These author claim that intellectual differences are based on the genetic distinctions between ethnicities.

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