Being forced to take standardized tests is something all students in the United States must endure. The SAT is an attempt to predict how well a student will perform during their first year of college without measuring past academic achievement. Several colleges across the nation place heavy emphasis on these scores when admitting students. Many Hispanic students are discouraged to attend college because their scores are remarkably lower than those of white students. Often, these high-achieving students who did well in high school, will not qualify for the scholarships deserving to them because they do not meet the SAT score requirement for these scholarships. There are many reasons why Hispanic students perform lower on the SAT including cultural bias and inability to pay for test preparation courses.

Because affirmative action is being done away with in the admissions process, many civil rights activists have come to the conclusion that the de-emphasis or even the elimination of standardized admissions are the key to maintaining diversity on college campuses. They also fear that heavy reliance on these test will continue to cause low Hispanic enrollment as well as “whiteouts” on college campuses.

On the other hand, Norma V. Cantt, assistant secretary for the OCR (office for civil rights), feels that “tests can help indicate inequalities in the kinds of educational opportunities students are receiving, and that the guarantee under federal law is for equal opportunity, not equal results.”

The opportunities received by some students, mostly rich white students, far outshine those given to students of the Hispanic origin. Socioeconomic differences in test performance, is another test bias. Because coaching schools are usually available to the wealthiest test takers, some regard the SAT as a “wealth test,” or claim “the only thing the SAT predicts well now is socioeconomic status.” Those students who come from wealthy families are likely to attend resource rich schools staffed by better-trained teachers than those of lower socioeconomic status. Pedro Noguera, a Harvard professor, explains the reason why poor children of color perform less well in school as “Consistently, such children are educated in schools that are inadequate on most measures of quality and funding. This is particularly true in economically depressed urban areas, where bad schools are just one many obstacles with which poor people must contend.”