Our frequent commenter Laura Chapman reveals the secrets about how to get very high test scores:
She writes:
“For decades, arts educators have pointed with misplaced pride at the relatively high SAT scores of students who have taken at least three or four years of art in high school. This relationship of SAT scores to course taking has served as a tool for advocacy of more arts education.
“Of course the proportion of high schools where consecutive years of study in all of the arts is not huge, and advocates rarely identify the particular art forms and studies associated with high SAT scores. And I have never seen comparisons of the SAT performance of students who have taken arts courses compared with other patterns of course-taking.
“I just downloaded the College Board Total Group Profile Report for 2014, the most recent available. If you are hankering for high SAT scores here are some things you can do to get yourself there.
“First, get yourself some parents who are “White,” or Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander. Make sure they have a graduate degree and an income of more than $200,000.
“Then go to an independent school where you can study Latin and/or Chinese, British Literature, European History, Physics, Calculus, Computer Programing, Theater and Music theory/appreciation (not performance). You can study other things, but these are the “best in class” for getting a high SAT score.
“Study all of these subjects for multiple years and take advanced placement courses galore.
“As a final touch, aspire to a doctoral degree and choose a major based on how you score on the SAT. That means math and statistics if you get the highest SAT score in math. It you score at the highest levels in critical reading and writing, get yourself a major in “Multi-Interdisciplinary Studies.”
“Among the intended college majors for this cohort of tests takers, 19% wanted to major in Health Professions and related Clinical Services; 12% wanted to major in Business Management, Marketing, and related Support Services; 10% selected an Engineering major; 7% intended to major in Biological an Biomedical Sciences, 7% intended to major in the Visual or Performing Arts; 5% intended to major in Psychology. Only 4% expected to major in Education.
“About 2% of the SAT test takers are planning to enroll in a Certificate or Associate degree program a trade or personal services occupation.
“The College Board CEO is the same person who takes credit as the architect of the Common Core State Standards, with two subjects proposed as if sufficient for college and career readiness. To that we can say, the SAT scores tell a different and well-established story about priviledge and opportunity to learn.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
After I quit laughing I realized how really sad and true this post is at describing reality. I taught special ed for 21 years and though I see the need to nurture the brightest and best I was always amazed at how far the average student can go if the opportunity is presented. My grandson was a solid “B” student in high school because of this he was denied admittance to AP courses. He achieved a 1200 on the old SAT scale…not remarkable. He went to Brockport and started in a program geared toward Nursing. He has easily aced his Anatomy and Physiology and other Sciences and is now considering a pre-med orientation. Some students need the opportunity and it’s just not available unless you are a straight “A” student. With the new teacher evaluation APPR teachers will be even less likely to offer this opportunity to the average student because if they didn’t do well they pull the teachers Overall evaluation down. We are so out of wack with what we are doing in education or should I say…not doing.
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Many schools allow open enrollment in AP courses, and the College Board recommends no having strict prerequisites in place. The solution here is for parents to go to the school board and lobby for a non-discriminatory enrollment process for AP courses. It really shouldn’t be up to AP teachers to decide who will be “offered an opportunity.”
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*not having
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Laura ~
The secret sauce to US flawless SAT scores is … a Parentectomy!
There are boarding charter schools that may try to sever children from their parents to raise a super race of minority children. Not quite the same as having rich White or Asian parents. Government could offer financial incentives to adopt the Wunderkinder from birth, SAT boarding school, staffed with TFA 22yrold psych-majors, and the Coleman end result: HS grads, perfect SAT, full scholarships in hand, reinstate visitation with POOR minority parents – only limited visitation, because now the children are too embarrassed, and must keep climbing the social and financial success ladder. America will remain 1st in the World in the number of Billionaires and their massive influence – World domination and ownership.
Laura, you’re on to something that only these megalomaniacs can aspire to.
Don’t know how I ever made it with POOR White Immigrant parents, attending public high school & public universities, while working part-time in small factories.
BUT, just think what I could have become, instead of just being another teacher.
Oh, maybe in my next life I will jump on the Coleman/Gates Gravy-train.
Seems much easier!
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“SATogate Parents”
SATogate parents
Of rich caucasian lawyers
Will give the children bearings
In Harvard’s yards and foyers
Based on the estimated cost to raise a child from birth to 18 (just after they take the SAT and get into college) — about $245,000 — Bill Gates could become an SATogate parent for about 320,000 children if he spent every penny of his $79 billion wealth before he dies (which he has promised to do)
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“Sure-o-Gates”
With Gates as surrogates
The kids would get high score
The deal would seal their fates
On SAT and more
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should be “With Gates’ as surrogates”
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As the daughter of high school dropouts who struggled to make ends meet, I got SAT scores that were pitifully low. But I was a hard worker, attended the nearest state college, and climbed into the middle class. As a result, my two sons received almost perfect scores on the SAT and graduated from Harvard and Stanford. Yes, education and money will do it nicely!
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Sounds like you had — gasp! — GRIT, Linda.
Now, let’s see who here objects to my observation, shall we? (For some reason that I simply do not comprehend, the notion that hard work and doing what you have to do whether or not you like it leads to success gets people’s knickers in a knot on this site.)
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Yes, I DID have grit, even though I suffered with a chronic illness, along with my limited financial resources. However, I had the most important characteristic needed for success: the love and care of my parents, who supported me while I was in college.
I think people get upset with the idea of “grit” due to the fact that so many very disadvantaged children just have to survive and their “grit” may go towards staying safe and getting enough food. Many people mired in poverty have determination as I did and these people generally succeed but many more are defeated and spend their entire lives in a survival mode. We need to help these people.
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Yes, we do. Keep up the good work! I had the interest of a wonderful guidance counselor in grades 11-12, and that was my saving grace, I freely admit.
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This points to the MOST effective way for education professionals to fight the Rheeformers. Use their own data against them. This story is a great example, and Diane’s post about the Pennsylvania teacher assessments is another.
In the end, the parents are the fulcrum.
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This is SO reminiscent of a program many years ago on FRONTLINE. This was in the era when all this bogus testing push began.
There were companies which guaranteed they could raise test scores
AND the could.
Not one said they could raise the level of education. Students were told among other things to answer the questions they knew first, then come back to the rest, to do other similar obvious things or maybe not always so obvious.
Our superintendent at the time said pretty soon they will have classes on how to pass tests AND WE ALL LAUGHED. It seemed so incongruous at the time.
Now?
Who cares if things are educationally sound, if students learn to hate learning etc etc. Just pass the corporate inspired tests preparing children to be widgets on the assembly lines of corporate CEOs, robots on those assembly lines of CEOs making millions while the workers TRY to avoid abject poverty.
Great way for a nation to “progress”.
Do people, children exist for government or does government exist for people?
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May I take offense at this post? It seems unduly snarky and critical of students who earn good marks on the SAT in an attempt to go after the College Board and Mr. Coleman. I’m proud to be mom to one of those top-scoring students. I won’t post details, but I can say that she does not fit most of the criteria for success as listed by Ms. Chapman. I’m also a little confused by this: “…choose a major based on how you score on the SAT. That means math and statistics if you get the highest SAT score in math.” Huh? Does she mean that students who are good in math shouldn’t major in math? Or maybe her comment was meant to criticize these students for not majoring in education. No, my student is not majoring in ed. But then she never expressed any interest in it, despite seeing me build my own career. That’s OK. She doesn’t have to be an educator just because she has super SAT scores. All in all, I guess I’m just not getting the point of the post, except to be mean. This one misses the mark.
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I’m not sure that you understood this post. It is not being critical of students who earn good marks on the SAT. It is saying that these high marks often indicate a student of privilege.
I too was really proud when my sons got almost perfect scores on the SAT. In fact, I could hardly believe it. That said, why did they get such high scores when their biological mother (me) and their father got very low scores (me) and average scores (Dad)?
According to what we know from the research, I did poorly on the tests because I came from a working class home with few resources. My parents were not high school graduates. In sharp contrast, my sons had many advantages: lots of language in the preschool years, a home and school in an affluent neighborhood, excellent medical and dental care (whereas I suffered for years with chronic ailments because my parents could not afford specialists), trips to many states, yearly camp, etc. etc.
What this post is saying is that the SAT reflects the privileges that my sons enjoyed and probably your child as well. This is well documented by the research and no longer a matter of opinion.
A poor score on the SAT often labels a student as “not college material” when he is really just poor. Is that something we want to do?
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Then what is needed is to impress upon these students who potentially might score low that they need to do EXTRA stuff to score high– and scoring high IS a measure of mathematical and verbal ability. It isn’t the be-all and end-all, I’m not saying that. I am saying that if you are disadvantaged you have to compensate and work twice as hard to, perhaps, get 2/3 as much. That’s just life.
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Great points Linda. Sad that some people will never get it.
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Have known you for two years, Linda, as a great letter writer to the LA Times…but did not know all this about you. Thanks for being so open.
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I agree, teacher. Secondary educators never “major in ed” anyway, and that’s a good thing. We need content knowledge! Speaking from my own experience, I got good Verbal SAT scores and acceptance at Brandeis and Wellesly because I read literature that was way above my grade level, using a dictionary. Doing this from grade 4 on improved my vocabulary, comprehension and word-sense, not to mention taught me much about life and human nature. Neither of my parents graduated from HS, and they weren’t even present in my life.
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Sorry that I did not make it clearer that all of my observations come from the College Board Total Group Profile Report for 2014–what that report reveals about the score distribution by demographic information collected, high schools attended, courses taken, the intended choices of majors among those taking the SAT, and so on.
Granted I added some snark, but that also came from the tendency to reify these scores as if there are not a host of supports that are in place for many of the kids who do score at a high level.
And you are correct about my post also being about the College Board and the CEO David Coleman. Why? He is taking steps to have the SAT become the college and career ready tests of choice beginning with PSAT for grades 8/9 and PSAT 10, and with test prep arrangements through KahnAcademy.
In 2016 a redesigned SAT will be administered statewide in Michigan. The state will provide free access to the PSAT 8/9 to ninth-grade students and the PSAT10 to 10th-grade students.
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has a deal with the College Board that will give students “free, personalized SAT practice” at KhanAcademy.org. MDE and the College Board will also give districts some resources and services so they can interpret and use the test results to propel more students “college and career readiness.” Details are not yet published, but KahnAcadmy ahd a privacy policy on data gathering that needs very close reading.
The College Board’s 240 page technical report on the revised SAT keeps the meme of “college and career ready” thoughout the discussion but only mentions the Common Core twice, and only in footnotes.
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Always enjoy your ‘snark’ and even more so, your reports of facts. Thanks Laura.
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Well, if you count being dumped off by your birth family, having to change primary language, and dealing with mild cerebral palsy as privilege, then sure, she was privileged.
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Sorry. I need to stop reading this blog for a while. The snarkiness and nastiness is counterproductive to the point you are trying to make, and that one hit too close to home.
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My SATs were average, but I made it through college and then got a Masters at an extremely progressive institution (in the 80s) that used the pass/fail system instead of grades. I bombed teaching several times but have been at my present location in special ed for 11 years. I actually didn’t bomb, the administration just couldn’t accept me for who I am, a person with Asperger and Tourette Syndrome. At 60, I am still learning, trying, and showing up.
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Wonderful story, Mary– inspiring!
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The documentary on Frontline is called Secrets of the SAT and I’ve shown it over the years to high achieving Journalism and A.P. 11 students…it is still up to date and
though made in the late 90’s as relevant now as it was when I used it in
Journalism many years ago… Almost all of my students–after watching the film–
agree that the SAT is unfair as well as not being an accurate assessment for
high school seniors…it favors the wealthy and those who can afford intensive
test prep…But my students and all students realize they must play the game.
The universities alone have the power to minimize the SAT and some are doing
so. The doc. is called Secrets of the SAT and Nicholas Lehmann is heavily
featured as it was based on his book…It might give hope to some poor and
minority students admitted to UC Berkeley despite low SAT’s.
My feeling is with Coleman in, things will not improve but valuable class
time will become test prep time as it is already with AP’s.
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The documentary,” Secrets of the SAT” followed a number of seniors from
a wide variety of high schools and ethnic backgrounds. The students were
all applying to U.C Berkeley and Berkeley in the 90’s was using comp.
review which allowed great students with low SAT scores to be admitted.
Comp review took and takes in 14 categories that can be factored into
the admit process…it calls for a real effort from the university to unnderstand
and locate exceptional students who–for a variety of reasons, do not
have the highest test scores. This I think is the way to go but it calls for real
effort from admission…GPA and SAT mainly is not a good way to go.
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SAT scores mean diddly squat when it comes to how well students do in college in my opinion. My son’s scores were low enough that his #1 school (0hio State) would not accept him. They said 2 years of community college and we will then take you. HA! He refused to do this. And inquired at a couple of other schools. After a recruiter and the University of Dayton saw what he could do with computers and robotics. He said he did not care what my son’s scores were or if he did not have the money to go to a high priced private college. That they would find a way to get his schooling bills covered. That they wanted him. He received many grants and scholarships through out his college career and had a couple of good internships the school helped set him up with. When he graduated he was head hunted by a couple of top fortune 500 companies who he pitted each other against to get the best pay and job he could. He now at 26 has paid of a large student loan, built a 350k home, and flies all over the US. for his job. And hopes that soon he can work on some international projects in Italy, France, and England. He has achieved all this with 2grandfathers who did not graduate high school. A father who did not graduate high school and a mother who went back to college at 36 to get
teaching degree and then her masters in Ed with a reading specialization. So Sat and those assumptions of your back ground are not always very accurate. Ohio state missed out on one very successful student. I wonder how many other very successful students they lost out to because of their SAT cut off scores?
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Poor and working class children need to take responsibility for their behavior and bad decisions.
After all, look at the poor judgement they showed in choosing their parents.
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Are you implying there is a class of people who do not need to take responsibility for their behavior and decisions? Or that poor and working-class people generally make bad decisions? Because that’s the way your comment comes across to me.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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