The Admissions Gap

This from the Washington Post:

Affluent students who can afford pricey SAT prep have an advantage when it comes to getting into college. But more educators are asking whether such exams are necessary.

Neal Lerner is the third child in his family to apply to college. For his mom, Janet, and dad, Chris, it's a little like being on autopilot.

When Neal, 16, hit his junior year last fall, his parents already knew the drill. They dug out the phone numbers for the private math and English tutors who would help him practice equations, expand his vocabulary and improve his test-taking skills. They handed over the credit card so Neal could sign up for the SAT and the ACT, the crucial college entrance exams. And then they hunkered down for the long haul.

Knowledgeable veterans of a process that has grown far more complicated than when they were in college, the Lerners, like many well-educated boomer parents, have adapted with little difficulty....

For the Lerners and their neighbors in the wealthier communities ...the route to the college of their choice is well traveled...[a]nd the outcomes are usually pretty good, perhaps partly because the local Zip code's median household income in 2007 was $172,442; several studies show a link between a family's income and a child's academic success.

More than 50 years after the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, you don't have to live in the wealthiest neighborhoods to obtain a challenging public education ...

But finding a way to vault over the next hurdle -- college admissions -- is not as easy, for reasons that are subtle and complicated. It can help if your parents are college graduates, educators say, or if they can pay for tutoring to improve your grades and scores on the SAT and ACT. If you can afford a private counselor to hold your hand through the process, you're also likely to have a better chance of moving ahead...

...Bob Schaeffer, co-founder and public education director for the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing, has long urged colleges to reconsider the entrance exam requirement, saying the tests are stacked against kids without financial resources. ...

"Our biggest concern about the SAT is that the SAT, rather than a gateway to opportunity, reinforces the factors that hold kids back from access to college," he said.

SAT scores [cluster] by about 30 to 50 points for every $20,000 in family income. Kids whose families earn less than $20,000 per year have an average combined score of 1320 on the SAT; those with income of $80,000 to $100,000 have a combined score of 1543; for those who reported family income of $200,000 or higher, the combined score is 1676." A perfect score is 2400...