Race And Socioeconomic Status

Improved Essays
A factor that ties into ill-funded schools and LEP students is race and socioeconomic status. The bottom line is “children who are given opportunities for more and better education tend to do better on the standardized tests that measure the learning that such education produces” (Sternberg). It’s obvious that students who come from low-income backgrounds are not able to afford the extra support that these exams offer such as textbooks, classes, apps, and tutors that are all geared towards the assessment. What benefit do extra resources provide for disadvantaged students when they can’t afford extra classes and textbooks to get ahead? Bronwyn T. Williams, a professor at the University of Louisville, stated that “students whose race or social …show more content…
Having shares of the education industry on every continent, “the company’s global adjusted operating profit for 2013 topped $1 billion — and 55 percent of it came from the North American education division” (Simon). Not only is the U.S. a huge cause of Pearson’s enormous success, but in a 2012 report from The Brookings Institution, Pearson’s annual revenue from administering state and federal assessments was an estimated $258 million (Simon). There is obviously an issue at hand when the U.S. dishes out millions of dollars and sees no progression in their education system compared to other countries around the world. The U.S. ranks 24 out of 65 countries in literacy, 17 out of 40 countries in educational performance, and 14 out of 40 countries in education (Ranking America). Instead of spending money on subjective and discriminatory tests, the money could be spent on schools for resources and programs. Pearson’s monopoly is supported by the fact that their share in the testing industry nearly triples their nearest competitor, 39 percent of the share (Simon). Pearson produces standardized assessments for students. Pearson has a large influence over America’s education which strikes concern for students as they have been placed in a discriminatory education system that is controlled by one company.
The problem with standardized tests not being
…show more content…
The Washington Post (which once was a subsidiary owner of Kaplan Inc., an education service provider) proclaimed that these assessments are the most objective material when admitting students to college (Alterman). The next most objective material is GPA and class rank, but due to various high school courses and grading systems, “no college can possibly know what an A-minus or B-plus means in each of the thousands of high schools their applicants attend” (The Washington Post). The Washington Post article then went on to theorize that the fewer objective materials colleges use (replacing them with extracurricular activities, interviews, essays), then the more that decisions will become biased and based upon mood and emotion. This is a true statement and although GPA may not reveal true academic proficiency, it does reflect character. Every grade, community/extracurricular activity, and personal essay measures work-ethic, leadership and diversity among students. Standardized tests only represents how well a student can perform on a wide-range of material that can be attributed to strategy rather than knowledge. Schools such as Wake Forest have based their application on more of an “individualistic” approach by interviewing their prospects. The University’s Director of Admissions stated “The interview adds dimension to the application and allows us to get to know students

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