Attack the Real Problems, Not Just the SAT

The article "Experts: SAT Biased Against Minorities" in the May 19 issue of The Crimson quoted many experts and student leaders attributing to racial bias the discrepancies in average SAT scores among various ethnic groups.

They missed the point.

I agree that there are some innate cultural biases, but what biases there may be are not enough to explain the low SAT scores of African and Latino American students. How can we fault the SAT's bias when so many minority students don't even know what the SAT is, and typically don't remain in high school long enough to find out?

Let us magnify our focus on the minutia and understand the greater problem and its cause. The real problem is this: By any standard of academic achievement, including standards with no inherent bias, the Latino and African American students are, on average, well below average. We must be bold and accept this situation, and take steps to remedy it.

To paraphrase Plato, What is honored in a community will be cultivated there. In the Jewish and Asian American communities, education is highly honored and valued, and that respect for education manifests itself in the disproportionately high representation of both communities, each comprising only a couple percentage points in the general population, at elite universities like Harvard.

This respect for education is sorely lacking in the African American and Latino communities, and is the cause of poor performance of African American and Latino students.

When I was a member of the New York City Central Board of Education, I passionately championed programs to increase the number of minorities in competitive colleges, and specialized high schools like Stuyvesant High School.

Our plan consisted of education and support. For example, volunteer students from Stuyvesant High School tutored inner-city, minority junior high students to prepare them for the Stuyvesant exam. The Board of Education and concerned students did not seek superficial remedies like racial quotas; we focused on the core of the problem, like high dropout rates, apathy to education, and low self-esteem, and we saw dramatic results.

Fairtest, a Cambridge-based organization whose purpose is evident from its name, concludes in its report that SAT analogies like "dividends is to shareholders' and 'checkmate is to chess'" are biased against minorities; this point is petty, and dangerously misleading. Our reaction should not be, "Let's eliminate those questions," but rather, "Let's make sure African American and Latino students know what those things are."

The solution is not to edit out exam material that most minority students are unfamiliar with; the solution is to familiarize them. Austin W. So '96   The writer was the first   student member elected   to the New York City