T/'K 'A r> U ATT! 51U d k n t s T
^ GRADUAT
SENIORS °0
■92 GIO STORM 2*2 SPORTS COUPE
Are you gelling ready to graduate from tio an *5
a 4 year degree program? Or are you * ! j?o f,t!ory r.h.u
currently enrolled in Graduate School? S aoo uiiiiitninMu
If 10. you may qualify la (iMAC't
College Graduate Program
KHT1I HERCHBERGER 342-1121
19161 ••!• *f tc«
Ml \ fcv’UT
VV ’/(503) 726-9176''
XXsyZ
StM« IIM frprtagHaH ktetOc
b—k Ubofitory
MMM VUH oitt • C
wm« IW ifwOW M«4a o4 Mr c
by •»* Maw
SAT
Continued Irom Page 1
The above example was tak
en from n study by the Educa
tional Testing Service about mi
nority strengths and weakness
es on the SAT The study, Dif
ferential liom Functlnninn for
Minority Examinees on the
SAT. exploit’d the most com
monly missed questions for
Asian-Americans. Hispanic*,
and blacks as compared to a
base group of white students
The study is part of the on
going battle to understand cul
tural bias on the SAT
"Educational Testing Ser
vices is putting a lot of money
into trying to do item analyse*
to eliminate bias at that Item
level," said David Hubln, exec
utive assistant to the president
at the University and a member
of the national SAT Commis
sion
"The reason they have to do
it is tx-uiuse it's easy to build
bias in inadvertently," he said
'You think you’ve got a gen
der-neutroi question, but the
only way you know it's gendor
neutrul is if it performs the
MHMMM
The Forecast is Hot
for Solar Bum
Even here in the cloudy Northwest, solar energy can lx* very
effective In fact, solar water heaters can save 35*65% of your water
heating costs. So if hot water costs are leaving you cold, let Eugene
Water & Electric Board put a little sunshine in your life.
If you own your home and have electric water heating, EWEB is
offering a cash rebate of up to $400 for installing a solar water heater.
Plus, you may also qualify for a substantia! state tax credit It's the
hottest thing going since running water.
So if you would like to soak up some solar savings, call EWEB
Energy Management Services at 184-112$ Funding is limited, so act
soon.
EWEB
Eugene Water & Electric Board
500 East 4th Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97401
503-484-1125
sunn' for both men and women.
"And to make sure it'* ethni
cally neutral it has to perform
the same for different ethnic
groups "
The possibility of an SAT
bias has been studied many
times before Various authors
have positioned themselves
against the SAT. citing what
they see us obvious cultural
bias The questions reflect u
white, suburban perspective.
The vocabulary may be com
mon among wealthy families,
whereas an inner city family
may never use most of the
words in the verbal SAT.
And finally. SAT prep
courses an1 available mostly to
honor students In other words,
the people who would do well
any way are the ones who get
the attention
"We studied and studied and
studied before tiie SATs,” said
Krirn Warren, a senior Asian
Studies major and Black Stu
dent Union member "But the
only people who wore propped
for the SAT were the honor stu
dents. It was taught to them in
their courses. Everybody else
had to pay for it.”
wnen me was con
ceived in 1926. it acted as a in
stitutionalized excuse for rac
ism. according to David Owen,
author of A/one of the Above.
What better way to discrimi
nate, Owen argued, than to give
an intelligence test to a society
when only half of that society
is well-educated?
The test was designed by a
young psychologist named Carl
Campbell Brigham at the re
quest of the College Board
Brigham was a racist of the
highest order, according to
Owen's book. He regarded
black citizens as a "sub-spe
cies'' and regarded intelligence
testing as a way to bar blacks
from mixing freely with whiles
Fortunately, u lot has
changed since then. LTS now
has a "cultural sensitivity pan
el" to identify potentially bi
ased questions And they try to
include questions relating to
different ethnic groups, such as
the dashiki question, so that
students of color will not Ixj at
such a disadvantage. Many p<x>
ple say the SAT is one of the
best ways (or a student of color
to escape a low-income future
Rut us Owen stales, the SA !
has clearly not done its job. In
1983, only (Hi, or 0 09 percent,
of all blacks in the entire coun
try scored above 700 on the
verbal SAT, compared with
7.263. or 1.1 porcent of u11
while test-tukors More than
54,000 whiles, but only 930
blacks, scored above 600. The
mean score for verbal was 443
for whites, compared with 339
for blacks.
Nine years later, the mean
scores haven't improved much,
blacks in 1991 scored an aver
age of 351 on the verbal, us op
posed to a 422 uvurage for all
tost lakurs. The average for
whiles was not available.
What does this show? Does
this mean the test is culturally
biusud against students of color
because the questions are struc
tured from a white perspective?
Or does it mean education for
students of color is below par.
and the nation should concen
trate on Improving that before
ullnring the SAT? Is the SAT a
thermometer that measures the
fever, or is it part of the fever it
self?
Tho Educational Testing Ser
vice study hypothesized some
of the major problems minority
test-takers tend to have on the
SAT.
Among Hispanic students,
words with falsa cognates tend
'ft's easy to build
bias In
Inadvertently. You
think you've got a
gender-neutral
question, but the
only way you know
It’s gender-neutral
if It performs the
same for both men
and women. And to
make sure it's
ethnically neutral It
has to perform the
same for different
ethnic groups.’
— David Hubin,
national SA T Commission
member
to bo among tho biggost prob
lems. evon with students whose
first language is English. False
cognates are words that have a
different meaning In two lan
guages. Thus Hispanic stu
dents. who typically huve a
grasp on both English and
Spanish, often confuse a word
in ono language with another.
Homographs are words that
are spoiled alike but havo dif
ferent meanings. Essentially
these words can take on two
common meanings within two
different cultures. Thus a ho
mograph of a word that is fa
miliar to white culture can be a
land mine for a black student.
A third reflection of SAT bias
is the theory of special interest.
In essence, a minority student
does better in sections that deal
with minority issues and con
cerns. If students were to look
at tho roudlng comprehension
section, for example, and a
question wus asked relating to a
Hispanic chemist, the Hispanic
student would do differentially
bolter on the question than the
white student.
Although soinu students may
find these examples farfetched,
they would do woll to think
about it. Alter all, don’t poopie
grasp something tetter whon it
relates directly to them? And
on the SAT, most of the ques
tions are oriented for a white,
middle-class audience, and
thus whites respond to the
questions tetter.
1*1111 tut] i ma,
tor of admissions, said tho Uni
versity tries to do-emphasizo
bias by including other factors
into the admissions process.
"We use the tost as a supple
ment to other criteria," Pitts
said "What wo really strive to
do is deal with each applica
tion individually."
Pitts said that's the best way
they have of avoiding bias
within the test.
"For most students, the use
of the SAT can be un advan
tage." she said. "I'm not saying
it's not biased, but we can try
not to make it the only criteriu
for lotting students in."
But that still doesn’t answer
the question: Is the test actually
biased against students of col
or?
It really depends on how you
judge it
"You're not going to find
flashy examples of overt rac
ism." Hubin said “You’re not
going to find flashy examples of
culturally biased questions that
you tan point to and suy. 'This
is drawn up with tho purpose
Turn to SAT. Pago 7