Welcome to new math that says an SAT score of 964 equals a score of 1223.
“We can’t sit on our hands and ignore the disparities of wealth reflected in the SAT,” claim college administrators.
To compensate for the fact that Blacks score lower on average than Asians and Whites, SAT to Give Students ‘Adversity Score’.
The College Board plans to assign an adversity score to every student who takes the SAT to try to capture their social and economic background, jumping into the debate raging over race and class in college admissions.
This new number, called an adversity score by college admissions officers, is calculated using 15 factors including the crime rate and poverty levels from the student’s high school and neighborhood. Students won’t be told the scores, but colleges will see the numbers when reviewing their applications.
How colleges consider a student’s race and class in making admissions decisions is hotly contested. Many colleges, including Harvard University, say a diverse student body is part of the educational mission of a school.
Methods and Scores a Secret
Close the Gaps
“Overall Disadvantage Level”
The disadvantage score goes from 1 to 100. 1 is very disadvantaged and 100 is very advantaged. 50 is average.
On average, a Black score of 946 equates to an Asian average score of 1223. But what if the Asian is very advantaged and the Black very disadvantage?
Perhaps 600=1400 to these academic wizards. We are all guessing because they do not reveal methods or scores.
Lawsuits
A lawsuit accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants by holding them to a higher standard is awaiting a judge’s ruling. Lawsuits charging unfair admission practices have also been filed against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California system.
Expect more lawsuits coupled with demands to know how badly admissions have been blatantly biased.
Actual Results
At Florida State University, the adversity scores helped the school boost nonwhite enrollment to 42% from 37% in the incoming freshman class, said John Barnhill, assistant vice president for academic affairs at Florida State University. He said he expects pushback from parents whose children go to well-to-do high schools as well as guidance counselors there.
“If I am going to make room for more of the [poor and minority] students we want to admit and I have a finite number of spaces, then someone has to suffer and that will be privileged kids on the bubble,” he said.
Racial Discrimination Encouraged
Here’s the clear message: Racial discrimination is necessary as long as it’s biased against White and Asians in favor of Blacks and Hispanics.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
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One of the major criticisms of SAT has to do with the gender disparity in students who graduate and enter careers related to STEM fields. Research has shown that women are far less likely to graduate with a STEM degree or enter a career in STEM compared to their male counterparts. So, are they now going to give special treatment to women as well? I’ve just completed writing an analysis of this stupid marking system on my blog – link to getschoolsupplieslist.com
Do read it.
Hah, interesting numbers. Maybe schools should include some management discipline link to au.edubirdie.com at schools or something like that. But let’s be honest, some communities are smarter than others.
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Doesnt go far enough. We need to guarantee all underperforming races ( because thats definitely the best was to segment people) a median wage. That way everything is equal from the start.
I live in one of the wealthiest counties in the country with one of the best public school systems. The schools are given report cards every year and without fail, the best determinant for how poorly a school grades is the pct of kids who are black and hispanic. And the truancy rate for blacks and hispanics is far higher than for whites and asians.
So whenever I read or hear how blacks and hispanics aren’t given the same opportunities, I roll my eyes. They’re given the same opportunities, but fail to take advantage of them.
This is really an “Asian Exclusion Law”, ala “The Chinese Exclusion Law” of about 100 years ago
The Handicapper General is in the building.
Because 4 legs good, 2 legs better!!!
Wow. Just Wow. Think of the blow-back this will create in the long term, when Asians ane whites start their promoting their own group interests.
This is typical of the leftist mind set: Problems and reality can be surmounted by using new labels and pretending we can have any reality we please. The ultimate result is that the ends justify the means, dictatorship, and mass murder.
Some questions:
-To what extent does the influence of parents’ education reflect genetics instead of environment?
-To what extent does parents’ social-economic level reflect genetics instead of -environment?
-How did Asians get to be so privileged? They sure didn’t start that way, being enslaved and murdered by Americans back in the day.
-Should the same approach be used in the criminal justice system to randomly dismiss charges against set percentages of (disproportionately) arrested blacks?
By the way, I am in favor of sponsored efforts to ameliorate social injustice. But within a framework of equality before the law.
I think they should do the same with their basketball teams. We’ll have a white 3 point line, 5 feet closer, and an asian one 2 feet closer than the white one. White players get an extra free throw per foul.
Exactly
I feel this is a symptom of a larger problem frequently discussed on this blog. The economic system no longer works adequately for the vast majority of Americans. The left has focused in on this and is trying to capitalize on it to promote electoral success and adoption of their agenda/narrative. Bad economics makes bad politics. In order to try to preserve the current fiat/fractional reserve financial system a little longer the Fed has resorted to gimmicks like QE, financial repression, serial bubble blowing, and financialization of the economy. All this has been done at the expense of the real economy. Since only the top 10% or so owns significant amounts of financial assets they have benefited greatly. The lower 90% have seen their jobs disappear only to be replaced by multiple jobs at much lower pay. Inflation is alive and well despite what government statistics tell us. The oft changed formula for CPI understates inflation in order to slow down the destruction of social security by limiting COLAs. If inflation was measured by the same metrics used in the 80s it would be around 9%. The implications of this are huge. The most significant being the the economy has been in recession since the 2008 crisis if you subtract that level of inflation from GDP. The middle class is in a vise between inflation and declining income. They are being sacrificed to preserve the current system a little longer. The current crop of politicians simply reflect this sentiment. Trump and AOC are simply two sides of the same coin.
This ill-advised modification of the SAT, is again a futile attempt to get the system to function. It will not work. All it will do is destroy the education system as a determining factor of who gets the few remaining jobs which pay a wage which allows independant household formation. This strategy along with “free” college will only hasten the collapse. After all printing college degrees for everyone does not guarantee a job. You cant print jobs for everyone
If I had to choose between a kid with a tough background who still managed an 1100 vs a kid who had everything given to them and still only got a 1200, I would enthusiastically take the 1100 – because they have the drive to succeed in college and in life. Jack Ma puts himself forward as the best example of this.
So to allow the exception (Jack Ma your example) in you would not only allow the majority who are not the exception in and statistically less likely to succeed and simultaneously shutting out (Keeping in mind that most colleges have a limit on the number they “can” accept) those that are statistically more likely to succeed? I think you do a disservice to those who are exceptional by assuming that if only standards were lowered there would be more exceptional people. Exceptional people will succeed without artificially lowering standards.
How are you going to determine who had everything given to them vs who had a tough background? Strictly on their race? Many black kids have an easier life than asian kids.
Will the curves used is college class tests/scoring be adjusted as well to insure those with lower “Academic” abilities but superior “Adversity” scores are allowed to pass? If not I cannot see how this will accomplish anything as from what I was to understand the standardized scores were to predict academic success, letting someone in with less likelihood off success sounds like a disservice to them as well as the taxpayers that will bear the burden of any financial aid they may be utilizing…
Similar to writing mortgages to those that can’t repay. It’s CRA for education.
Where did you get 964?
Nationwide, only 50 of more than 580 public four-year institutions graduate a majority of their full-time students on time. The incredibly high dropout rates represent an enormous waste of resources. Also a burden of student debt which is a drag on the economy since college students without a degree earn no more than high school graduates (on average). Unqualified students fail. It’s a mistake to massage the entry qualifications to admit more unqualified students, even if the intentions are noble.
At my sons school and major, it is mathematically impossible to graduate in 4 years unless they ignore pre-requisite requirements or you start out with a lot of credits for freshman classes. Even if you attend summer school.
Even it verse in case of MCAT, My both sons had high MCAT and GPA score but they had a really hard time to get admission in to medical schools, even the same medical schools offered admissions to those who had lower MCAT and GPA scores, being a parents we were frustrated when we heard our sons placed on waiting list and the candidates which lower scores were admitted. This is very unfair and very bad for really talented students but they are getting behind the line because they are Asian, this is such a bad policy which needs to be changed to provide an equal opportunity for all races.
Even more hilarious is the trend that more and more colleges are dropping the requirements for SAT test altogether! What a glorious american experiment!
If you look at most professions, you see an overabundance of East Indians, Asian and Jews. My personal observation is that they float around at the top of their chosen fields because they study harder and work harder. Period.
Seriously, does your father’s or mother’s income affect your ability to crack a book or do your homework??? My parents both grew up poor. My father didn’t “face hunger” or “struggle with hunger” or whatever the euphemism is for being fed by the government. He went hungry, which is a whole different thing. Yet he finished high school and she finished college. The whole thing is a load of crap
If this were a problem with racism, or religious discrimination, somebody would be squashing the hope and dreams of the most successful. And they ain’t WASPs. It is time for the “disadvantaged” to put in the work.
Both my parents grew up poor, with my dad having parents that didn’t particularly care about their education.
My mom is Hispanic, and still speaks with an accent.
They are both examples of what the American Dream is, and not once have they ever spoken about how ‘unfair’ life was for them.
Their work ethic? Superb is the key word. And they have certainly reaped the rewards for their hard work. Dad still works full time.
Success is out there for those willing to work for it. Good for your parents! And, I suspect the same for you.
College is no longer worth the money unless you get a STEM degree. Then it’s barely worth it.
Observe Maxine Waters & AOC
“When I asked Mish, if he is trying to get deplatformed, I was joking. You liked the comment, because you would like him being deplatformed.”
It was clear that was a joke. I thought it was funny.
I have no interest in deplatforming. But I have the right to disagree with the framing of this article
The education establishment in the US is obsessed with being as anti-white as they can get away with now. My kids tell me that their “English” classes have been studying racial injustice every day this year. I just tell them what “racism” actually is: considering race to be an important characteristic of an individual.
really that’s news to me…. In the Boston area it seems like most colleges & universities are 90% – 95% white and asian with some token minorities as not to appear racist. Same with most towns in the metrowest suburbs & on the north & south shores. Maybe you mean public school systems in places like NYC that are 83% minority?? The white yuppies who live in Manhattan & Brooklyn Heights have and continue to spend $40,000 a year on private school but at least with higher education it is anything but anti white and administrators & students (most who are the offspring of the top 1%) treat minorities like tokens, children and as less than . Racism is extremely widespread just very subtle & hush hush
Not everyone will be able to complete a degree in a STEM field or get into medical school, get a PhD in Physics from MIT meaning that you need to have a the aptitude to get a high paying middle class & upwardly mobile career. The SAT is really a form of an IQ test.. The big problem is that a large segment of the population in the USA just doesn’t have the aptitude, problem solving or critical thinking skills needed. Sure, ‘dumb down’ the tests & standards but employers & society isn’t going to do the same.
Why bother with the test at all if the results are then manipulated?
For the same reason we have bailouts, The Fed, “economic statistics” and the rest of the drivel: To keep the progressive charade going. To ensure all outcomes are due, and only due, to policy. Rather than individual talent, effort and productivity.
So now, all it takes, and the only way, to be a “smart” student, is to have some privileged twit adjust something and say you are one. While all it takes to be a “smart investor,” is to have the Fed print money to pump up your “assets.”
Convenient for the kind of idiots dumb enough to fall for progressivism. As well as for the, somewhat less dumb, jihadis that are angling take advantage of a West weakened by solely promoting rank idiots to all positions of wealth and authority for generations.
When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression
Privilege is when one group has a special advantage that others don’t, and equality is leveling that same playing field. So in other words, “when you’re white and are used to things being easy for you, it’s easy to view another group getting an advantage in their favor as unfair”
It’s exactly the opposite.
I thought this was an open forum where we could all share ideas and opinions. Like Mish’s generalization that “Racial discrimination is necessary as long as it’s biased against White and Asians in favor of Blacks and Hispanics”
I agree. Old white men have been in charge of this country for so long they feel they are now being treated unfairly. The major problem facing old white men is that they can’t reproduce, so their political position is ultimately unsustainable.
Just a few years ago these old white men were young white men that busted their hind ends to get to where they are. The will be replaced by other young men that are busting their hind ends that will be replaced by….
I hope that there is some trace of meritocracy left, else we are doomed.
Care to guess my age and gender?
It is not meritocracy that is the secret. The Chinese have pretty much learned that doesn’t work very well, although to become a national leader you must first have had superior performance at the state and city levels. Meritocracy leads to corruption which in China is rampant.
It is about raw competition. Each of us is in competition for everything we strive to achieve, whether it’s money, power or sex. Participating in a diverse society doesn’t improve our ability to compete. It just improves our chance the other guy isn’t cheating.
Do you understand the meaning of meritocracy? It means that you achieve success based on your hard work and performance. In other words, you earn it. The Chinese have learned that well. Good education and hard work pay off.
I don’t know what your age or sex is. Gender means having masculine of feminine characteristics. To that end, everyone has a unique gender. It is a meaningless term in your context.
I initially said, “Old white men have been in charge of this country for so long they feel they are now being treated unfairly.” I am an old white man who is not at all bothered by old white men losing their power base, since they seem to have lost any good ideas about what to do with it other then to enrich the already rich.
As far at the Chinese go, their meritocracies have resulted in part in the building of the ghost cities so the state leaders can meet their 10 year economic goals even though there was no demand for this housing and it remains empty and crumbling. If state leaders met their economic goals, even if useless, they were seen as meriting higher political office. That is what I meant by corruption.
The Chinese economic performance over the past 40 years has been probably the greatest economic achievement in the history of mankind. But it is at a cost of absence of decision making shared by the population (think the seizure of huge tracts of property in Shanghai and Beijing, think the movement of entire cities from the riverside of the the Yangtze to cliffs several hundred meters above the river.) This is not possible because of meritocracy, it is possible because the government did not seek the opinions of those who would be moved before they flooded the valley with 175 meters of water. It is not an environment many Americans would embrace, although in the long run the Chinese may end up eating our economic lunch.
Easy admissions for persons of color is nothing new. I went to college with people that could not read. I don’t know if they actually were pushed through to graduation.
We will hopefully replace all the old white men with minorities from Africa and the middle east so we can be as advanced and have exceptional explemary governance and economic progress they have.
Congratulations. You missed my point completely!
… and if there is a football or basket ball scholarship involved…. LOOKOUT!
Ummmm… Yes. Can someone explain to me briefly what football or basketball have to do with a college education? After all, they affect only a very small percentage of students overall.
Even more interesting is how they stay in with a grade point average. “Certain” classes?
Increasing admissions based on race will simply lead to something the colleges cannot control, because they are unwilling to control it: the dropout rate.
That is easy to fix, just require profs to give better grades to minorities. You may laugh but you know that will be the next ‘advancement’.
There already are professors talking about race based grading.
In Detroit the hs graduation rate is 20% despite having the state average in school funding ie not underfunded. The local university in Detroit with good academics had a program to give free tuition to any high school graduate. Unfortunately they had to d/c the program because the dropout rate was to high. The problem is that no amount of govt money will instill educational and work ethic values. This is a cultural problem only and the only way it will resolve is through instilling these values into the cultural mindset. Every ethnic group that has immigrated into the US has pulled themselves from the deepest levels of poverty by having each successive generation better themselves and their families. Apparently meritocracy in academics and business is out the window. We are circling the drain.
Well, being discriminated against by FSU is probably a good thing for you in the long run.
I have a good friend, African-American, who is an engineer at Kennedy Space Center. Works for Bezos’ outfit. He was born in the ghetto, single-mother, poor, the whole bit. He was a smart kid though and went to the University of Florida (where you actually get an education, unlike Free Shoes U). His son got a perfect score on the SAT. Why? Not just because he is a bright kid like his father, but because his parents expected him to take advantage of the educational opportunities afforded him, and to excel.
Many Asian families (including Indian) are well known for having high educational expectations for their children. Mish’s list really represents a cultural bias regarding education by race. Asians demand their kids excel, Blacks, not so much. But individual people of all races fall all over the spectrum.
I don’t really have a problem if a black or hispanic kid gets a little preference under certain circumstances. And primarily they have to be fighting hard for their future. In the end, they will be the role models other kids can look up to. I certainly prefer it to some jackass rich guy paying some college admissions guy a couple of hundred grand to get their idiot, stoned kid a golf team scholarship.
I actually like their scoring criteria. I am absolutely opposed to them applying it by race though. Poor white and asian kids can be growing in terrible circumstances too. But not using race still benefits black and hispanic kids simply because they are more likely to grow up that way.
but likely growing up he was ‘exposed’ to the other side of society — ex, not in ghetto, not trapped in the cycle of poverty.. Remember that the brain is developing up to age 25 so teen years are critical. I also notice that many of these African Americans try so hard to act white due to inherent racism (it still is widespread and exists in cities like NYC & Boston ) by dressing very preppy, wearing fitbit trackers, wearing flip flops etc.. The fact is that still African Americans will have to work harder and deal with the subtle racism– it exists trust me but everyone is very hush hush about it.
Poor whites (aka “Working Class”) usually can get jobs in the trades..Some have said that the construction industry hires immigrants so they don’t have to hire blacks but you very rarely see a black plumber or electrician, even if you think the trades are more open now they sure as hell were not in the 1980s & 1990s which led to the spiral of the out of control crime rates.
There are plenty of black ppl in the trades in NYC
I hearted your post simply because you called FSU ‘Free Shoes U’.
I’m old enough to remember Bowden’s ‘Free Shoes U’ football scandal and I never let my friends who went there forget it as I always refer the school by that name.
It is Black Privilege.
Add on top all the generous the “Black only” scholarships/grants to pay for college once in a college.
If “diversity makes us stronger” and “diverse teams are stronger and better” – then why is there no one pushing to make and NFL and NBA more diverse to better reflect the racial make-up of the Americans who watch these games?
Because they want to win.
The US Constitution is quite clear of equality under the law.
One day – government sponsored and approved racism will end.
Every time you move somebody up unwarranted, someone else gets moved down… See how well this system works for poor white males!
“One day – government sponsored and approved racism will end.” The College Board is not exactly government sponsored, and Harvard certainly is not. Granted, however, that the SAT’s new adversity score will be used by public institutions.
And how many billions in taxpayer dollars do these institutions of higher learning recieve each year?
“The College Board is not exactly government sponsored…”
Get the government out of the student loan business, allow student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy, end all tax breaks for educational institutions, and democratize the attainment of education credentials, so that degrees can be earned on-line with competency tests administered at testing centers, THEN we can begin to say that “the college board is not exactly government sponsored.”
Runner Dan, I agree with your points, which show the intertwines between the government and nominally independent colleges.Still, the government would be more, not less controlling of educational independence if it banned the creation of adversity scores by the College Board or its use by nominally private colleges. A separate question is whether the use of diversity is right, or useful. That’s complicated and debatable. Separation of government and education, especially post-secondary, or steps towards that, should be a prerequisite to the debate, and you point out how far we are from that.
“A separate question is whether the use of diversity is right, or useful. That’s complicated and debatable.”
Yes, the question is complicated and debatable, so much so that the decision should not be entrusted to a small group of self-proclaimed “experts”. Rather, you and I along with everyone else should have a say in it, as expressed in the collective action of our choices made in a free (i.e., “fair”) market when we choose our colleges. I happen to believe exposure to very diverse socio-economic backgrounds is important, so letting in low SAT scoring blacks wouldn’t bother me all that much. Of course, that means a non-black higher scoring student gets displaced and that isn’t fair either. There will never be a consensus of what is fair and this is all the more reason we should completely privatize education (which would mean less taxes too, by the way) and let the “fair market” decide the matter.
Segregation on buses in Alabama officially ended on November 13th, 1956.
Discrimination against blacks continued for decades after that. I can only assume that you or your parents being so righteous about equality fought against the white privilege of the times..
So your solution to past racism is to continue racism against people who had nothing to do with the past racism.
And you wonder why Trump was elected.
No that is not my solution but at least I can see that there is a problem that we carry as country from our recent past that needs to be address. BTW adjustment to the SAT also uses income yet everyone here just talks about color of skin. That is why Trump won.
College administrators are cowards who have little interest in the pursuit of knowledge or advancing the common good. They have become real estate developers and lobbyists and primarily interested in preserving their privileged positions.
Issac Newton must be rolling over in his grave (at 45 rpm with occasional gusts up to 78.)
These comments are based not only on the contents of this article, but also on my personal experience as an adjunct professor for 10 years. It’s all depressing for anyone interested in the advancement of knowledge.