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SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

nytimes.com

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Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#201

Post by knolax »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #49
xienze wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of that’s going to make any difference. Let’s be real here, it’s going to be based on race alone (and perhaps being gay or trans). White or Asian? You don’t suffer any adversity. Black or Hispanic? Congratulations, your score just improved by 200 points. This just sounds like the SAT board doing what school admissions boards already do: decreasing or increasing scores based on race. https://www.latimes.com/local…

How do they determine one’s race in the US? Is there a central database where everyone gets a record at birth? Otherwise what stops me from reporting myself as black?

The Census collects racial information that most people answer with responses they believe to be truthful. IIRC in WW2 it was used to identify Japanese-Americans for internment.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#203

Post by learc83 »

cljs-js-eval wrote: post #191
perfmode wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you make an argument why this would be considered about “outcome” for the purpose of conversation?

The adversity score, as far as I can see, gives high scores to students who succeed in worse school districts. While none of the sites reporting on this bothered to link to any kind of official announcement, it looks like this may be a refinement of the tool announced here in 2016: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/pr... From the college board's description of the tool, it weights applicant sc…

>The OP had the same opportunity, but because they did the traditional things for a poorer family to encourage their students to succeed (moving to a good school district and sacrificing on the commute) they will be considered a privileged student in this analysis.

Compared to the poor students whose parents didn't make those sacrifices, they are privileged.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#204

Post by rtkwe »

rhegart wrote: post #131

Equality of opportunity over outcome for me. Now Asians will be discriminated against secretly. My family sacrificing vacations and eating out for 12 years (literally ate out 5x max) to afford to live in a good school district shouldn’t penalize us. My dad commuted 4 hours daily instead of moving...I’m getting pushed further and further to the right.

The issue with 'equality of opportunity' is it barely exists and only for the group of people in nearly exact economic statuses in the same area. So many things in the environment and schooling set poorer people back from day 1 be it environmental pollution, noise pollution, or older poorly funded schools (given how much extra funding schools can get from a combination of property tax revenue and just fundraising from parents), the list goes on.

Colleges have limited ability to help with those factors so they apply weights where they can. Hell even the SAT itself has a pretty regressive impact because most colleges will let you submit your highest score from multiple tests, I got 2 800s but it took 2 tests (not counting a couple PSATs I got various times) to get that a chance a poorer person is much less likely to have.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#205

Post by azeotropic »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #49
xienze wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of that’s going to make any difference. Let’s be real here, it’s going to be based on race alone (and perhaps being gay or trans). White or Asian? You don’t suffer any adversity. Black or Hispanic? Congratulations, your score just improved by 200 points. This just sounds like the SAT board doing what school admissions boards already do: decreasing or increasing scores based on race. https://www.latimes.com/local…

How do they determine one’s race in the US? Is there a central database where everyone gets a record at birth? Otherwise what stops me from reporting myself as black?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#206

Post by knolax »

EventH- wrote: post #184
dunstad wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't believe everything you read. Vonnegut is an author, not a prophet.

Totally irrelevant; this isn't a matter of the author being one thing or another. The point Vonnegut makes in the story is a philosophical one, namely that a blind pursuit of equality is wicked and inhuman, which is transparently correct.

Arguing that point with a fictional novel seems incredibly opaque, inefficient, and sometimes disingenuous.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#207

Post by learc83 »

Erik816 wrote: post #183
rexpop wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SAT scores and GPA are strongly affected by how much money you have.

Yes, because intelligent parents tend to make more money. And their children tend to be more intelligent as well.

That's part of it. But even when adjusting for IQ, parental income is highly correlated with success--SAT scores, college admission, lifetime income--however you want to measure it.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#208

Post by droithomme »

logicx24 wrote: post #44

This, like every other similar attempt made to "equalize" the SAT, is misguided and will accomplish little. If the SAT correlates too strongly with wealth, then Collegeboard should make a better test. Make one that changes significantly every year so direct test-prep is hard. Choose different types of critical reading passages and questions each year, vary the style of the math questions - make the test different eno…

The student who spends time preparing for a test, reviewing the material, studying previous tests, drilling with practice tests, actually has more scholastic aptitude than the students who do not do this because these are actual research and preparation skills that are valuable to success in mastering college material.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#209

Post by thaumasiotes »

Erik816 wrote: post #183
rexpop wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SAT scores and GPA are strongly affected by how much money you have.

Yes, because intelligent parents tend to make more money. And their children tend to be more intelligent as well.

Similarly, the wind is strongly affected by weathervanes.

Re: SAT to Add ‘Adversity Score’ That Rates Students’ Hardships

#210

Post by jachee »

GhostVII wrote: post #196
jachee wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is giving underprivileged people a leg up "punishing" anyone? Privileged people need to start recognizing their inherent pre-rigging of the system. For those in power, equality feels like oppression.

Admissions is generally a zero sum game, so whenever you help one group, you hurt everyone else who doesn't have that benefit.

Well, then every privileged person who gets in is "hurting" someone of lesser inherent opportunity.

They can use that privilege to spread their applications around to increase their opportunities.

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