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SAT 'Adversity Score' flawed and unfair

Alicia Preston
Alicia Preston

The College Board, the organization that administers the SAT exams, has rolled out a new "Adversity Score" that will be provided to college administration officials. The company will gather data on each student, his/her neighborhood, and school district and give the kids a rating from 1 to 100 – 50 being average and the higher the number the more disadvantaged that the College Board has determined the student to be.

Why? According to David Coleman, chief executive of the College Board, "Merit is all about resourcefulness... This is about finding young people who do a great deal with what they’ve been given. It helps colleges see students who may not have scored as high, but when you look at the environment that they have emerged from, it is amazing.”

This is one of the most flawed and unfair ideas I have heard of in what is already, as proven by the latest college admissions scandal, a flawed and unfair process.

Unless the College Board is going to interview all 2 million students that take the test every year individually, and then prove whatever the kids are saying, how would they possibly know who is truly disadvantaged and not? And, what does "disadvantaged" mean when it comes to the differing struggles and "privileges" every individual student experiences?

The new "score" will take into account 15 factors, broken into three categories: neighborhood, family and high school environments. That gets broken down to include, among other things, crime rate, poverty rate, housing values of the students neighborhood; whether the kid's family is a single-parent household, what the parent's education levels are and if they speak English; and the free lunch rate and difficulty of curriculum at the high school the student is enrolled in. This standardized statistical data is supposed to tell the person deciding whether a kid gets into college whether he or she has overcome something or led the "life of Riley." And that, is to be taken into account during the acceptance process.

I'm curious how the College Board is going to calculate: That girl whose house has two Escalades in the professionally manicured yard, whose father travels for work and is never home, and mom is a drug addict who hasn't fed her more than whatever the kid can nuke from the freezer and eat in front of the TV, and has no idea when her daughter's next school test is and doesn't care. That family that lives in the wealthy school district because they wanted a better education for their children and work a combined three jobs to live there and are never home but try like hell for the sake of the kids. The low-income family with two parents and two kids who eat dinner together every single night and have set homework hours before a daily dose of "family hour" before bedtime. The single-parent home where mom is working overtime to keep food on the table, takes nothing from anyone because she once had nothing herself and takes pride in her ability to provide, and has taught her kids to be resilient and self-sufficient and that no one owes you anything.

How exactly will the College Board calculate any of these or the literally thousands of varying scenarios young people may be experiencing?

This system, while an effort to provide a level playing field for some, is creating a disadvantage for those that are perhaps statistical anomalies, or simply don't fit the created formula.

Yes, colleges should absolutely consider more than SAT scores. That's what GPAs, class choice, extracurricular activities, admission essays and those dreaded college interviews are for. This system simply feeds admissions officials with sweeping generalities and unprovable demonstrations of hardship or privilege in the early moments of consideration. Let us not forget, in every single one of these situations, these are students looking for an advanced education. They are part of the 69 percent that already have worked hard, have ambition and have overcome various hardships and difficulties, to even get to the point of taking the SAT test and applying for college.

The concept of this "Adversity Score" is inherently flawed. Many complain about standardized tests like the SAT being used as part of the college admission process to begin with because every student learns differently and tests differently. Some colleges are taking this into account. But, if you believe you can't standardize a test to understand a student's knowledge or abilities than you simply can't believe you can standardize people's socioeconomic backgrounds and presume that is an accurate reflection of an individual student's life.

Alicia Preston is a former political consultant and member of the media. She’s a native of Hampton Beach where she lives with her family and three poodles. Write to her at PrestonPerspective@gmail.com.