[jonathanmo]

If you can believe it...

"The problems with standardized tests often include a class or racial bias. For instance, the influential Standard Achievement Test (SAT) requires students to be familiar with terms like "conservatory" and "regatta." Another state reading test had a number of questions on a passage, with a chart, from Consumer Reports on frequent-flyer traveler benefits. As one teacher asked, "If students didn't score well, was it because they can't read or because they don't have the background knowledge?" (see "'High-Stakes' Harm," p. 14). Such tests can skew results in a dangerous way, given how scores are used to justify a wide range of stereotyping and tracking."

http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives/mar1999_date/msg00009.html

[NYCVirago]

For instance, the influential Standard Achievement Test (SAT) requires students to be familiar with terms like "conservatory" and "regatta."

Thanks for posting that example. I was waiting for somebody to post about the word "regatta." IIRC, that word hasn't been on the SAT for at least a decade, precisely because minority groups complained about it.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Why They Really Hate the SAT
by Steve Sailer
Published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/2/91, 800 words

"...the Associated Press, Newsweek, USA Today, the Boston Globe, and others recently reported that the SAT quizzes students on "regatta," by implication a word known mostly by white, male yacht owners. That "regatta" question, in fact, was scuttled back during the Ford Administration. All questions since have been pretested for bias...."

http://www.isteve.com/sat_test.htm

[HIDEK6]

For instance, the influential Standard Achievement Test (SAT)...

I thought SAT was bureaucratese for "Scholastic Achievement Test".

[jimt]

For instance, the influential Standard Achievement Test (SAT) requires students to be familiar with terms like "conservatory" and "regatta."

And you're highly unlikely to learn them if you don't read books, and all your time is spent watching rap videos or listening to salsa music and playing soccer.

Duh !

Familiarity with the language is essential to communication. That doesn't make it "racist".