Up@dawn 2.0

Friday, April 26, 2019

Economic Inequality and Post-Secondary Education - Nolton Woods (Section 6)

Image result for MTSU
Middle Tennessee State University
How does economic inequality affect post-secondary education opportunities?

For most high school students, the college application process starts during their junior year by taking the SAT or ACT. How they score on these tests will more than likely determine which schools they can get into. Score too low, then the prospect of getting into a competitive undergraduate program becomes doubtful. While the SAT may give some insight to admission departments on how qualified an applicant is, it is not without bias. According to College Board, the organization that designs the test, data collected in 2013 shows that students from wealthier households do better on the SAT. For test takers from households making over $200k yearly, the average combined score was 1,714. Test takers from households making less than $20k yearly, the average combined score was 1326, 388 points less.


Figure 1:
SAT scores compared to family income

Applying to schools can also be a challenging task. Students whose parents highest level of education is a high school diploma, often have to navigate the application process on their own. While counselors are available to assist with college applications, they are on average responsible for 500 students. The cost of an application is also a prohibitive factor. While fee waivers are available, some students may not know they are eligible, or obtaining one is difficult from certain schools. Additionally, visiting schools to determine which one may the best fit is also not feasible for some students due to traveling and lodging costs.

Household income not only affects how likely it is for one to get into a university, but also their chances of success if admitted. In a segment by PBS NewsHour in 2015, it was noted that household income was the most important indicator of probability of graduation. 77% of students from high-income households graduated from college in 2013 compared to 9% students from low-income households. The major reason, according to Vice Provost David Laude from UT Austin, was that students from low-income families felt like they did not belong. For some students, the financial situation of their family becomes a form of stress and guilt, with one student interviewed in the segment stating that he sends $400 from his scholarship home to help pay for bills.

    Why poor students drop out even when financial aid covers the cost

    
    
For those who graduate and plan to apply to graduate school, the process does not become impartial compared to their undergraduate applications. For entry into most graduate programs, the general GRE (graduate record examination) is required. The test itself is not cheap, costing $205. Tutoring for the test is even more expensive with most online sites charging $100+ for a month; $400+ for 6 months, guaranteeing 1 to 7 point score increases. Even MTSU offers GRE workshops costing $200 for 20 hours of tutoring. With graduate schools being very competitive, 22% of PhD and 48% of master's applicants were accepted nationally in 2015, many will retake the test to increase their odds. Those who can afford to take it multiple times, as well as the tutoring, have a significant advantage over those who can not. Victoria Clayton from the Atlantic sums it up the exam as "a proxy for asking 'Are you rich?'" While most schools state that there is no minimum required score and downplay its importance in admissions decisions, Dr. Julie Posselt an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Michigan stated that "in many programs it's treated as a very significant piece of information."

Finances should not be a determining factor in admissions and success for universities. When a post-secondary education becomes a opportunity for only the affluent, then income inequality will only be more prevalent in the future. The remedy requires more effort by the federal and state governments to ensure that high school students from impoverished communities have access to the resources and assistance needed during the admission process. This, however, requires the commitment from politicians in the form of funding and vocal support, which can be difficult to acquire in certain states and localities.

Other ways to potentially make the process more equal could be the elimination of the SAT and GRE as an admission requirement for undergraduate and graduate programs respectively. Higher emphasis on participation of extracurricular activities, research experience, letters of recommendation, grades, etc. may yield more qualified students without the process being biased towards more affluent students.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you believe the SAT and GRE accurately assesses student potential, or is it a dated method? Or is it somewhere in the middle?

2. How should Universities approach the issue of making students from low-income families feel like they belong?


Comments:

LSD-Assisted Psychotherapy: Colby Pearl
Blackholes: Dean Cheevers





5 comments:

  1. This is a definite problem in our society. What philosophical views of education might help us rectify it? John Dewey's views as expressed in "The School and Society," "Democracy and Education," et al, perhaps?

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1) I think that standardized tests lie somewhere in the middle of assessing student potential. It has its flaws in that it relies on rote memorization and knowledge with little context, but it still does a decent job for what it is needing to do. It is difficult to replace these tests because of how hard it is to accurately assess everyone in the US to the same standard.

    2) I think universities do a decent job at helping, but there is always a certain stigma attached to needing help. We have the Student Food Pantry on campus, but I've never seen anyone actually use it. We have the Raider Closet on campus to help with professional clothes, but I haven't seen anyone use it either. I don't think that the university is at fault as they try to help students, but more of a societal flaw.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I advocate for universal access to secondary education, ultimately it restricting lower income populations from having access to higher education subsequently blocks them opportunities not only of having better, potentially higher paying jobs, but also often from general understanding of the systems that put them into their financial situations (for example the number of lower income citizens who repeatedly vote for republican candidates who give higher tax cuts to the rich, despite that money never seeming to "trickle down" as they claim it's supposed to)

    ReplyDelete
  4. To answer your first question, I do not think that the SAT or GRE give a decent representation of what a student is. Some students have test anxiety, meaning that they find it harder to be able successfully complete a test that basically defines their lives. I do not think that a test should be something that holds you back from an education at a higher institute, as some kids/students are exceptionally bright, but might not have the test scores to back that up. Someone's choice of college or higher education should not be left up to a testing score.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I personally believe that the SAT, ACT, and GRE are not made in a way that can properly show a students full potential and understanding. Because of this many intelligent students are held back from getting a good post-secondary education, and lose many chances at extra financial aid, which could keep them from accruing large amounts of debt from student loans.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.