Bill Huang, Pd7, due 10/13 (Modern Mythology)

 Bill Huang

10/13
Period 7

Modern Mythology 2023

Socio-political Consciousness
What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

At this time of the year, many of us are retaking the SATs in hopes of a better score, which could have a major impact on our lives in terms of what college we go to and what financial aid or scholarships we can get. Sometimes it feels like we or at least I, simply accept this system and don’t question it. Many of us have parents that emphasize the importance of the SAT, so we feel forced to prepare and study for it. But the question that I have now is just “why?”. Why is this our system? Why does it cost so much to take each test? Why does the SAT have explanations for each section?

The College Board is, on paper at least, a nonprofit organization. Meanwhile in reality, it had a revenue of $1.11 billion in 2019. 19 of their executives earn more than $300k a year, while their CEO earned $1.3 million in just 2009. The exams have a significant monetary cost, $60 for SAT and AP exams seem to cost $94. There’s also the endless nickel and diming of College Board. It costs money to send SAT or AP exam scores, especially silly for AP exam scores since it’s a single digit. Want to get results on which questions you got right or wrong? Pay and you can get it. In 2017, College Board earned $1.068 billion of revenue but spent only $927.8 million, leaving $140 million in profit. 

Is this just socially accepted theft? The cost of SAT preparation and then actually taking the exams and sending the results is ridiculous. But back to the question of “why?”, I have one decent answer. College Board wants a nice profit and its only competitor is the ACT, which is more common in the midwest. As dehumanizing it is, colleges like having a single number to process students with, there’s simply too many people to have a deep understanding of. The American education system as a whole originates from the industrial revolution, when factories wanted a large pool of possible workers that were loyal, understood basic math and English, and followed orders without thought. The emphasis on testing instead of building a portfolio or having useful skills is a remnant of this previous system.

When answering the question of “why?” for the SAT explanations for each section, I could only think of two answers, both of which are depressing. Firstly, the explanations are meant to help students that simply do not know how to do the sections correctly. All of us know what the sections are and never need to look at the section explanations because of our studying and preparation. The idea that this is needed brings up the uncomfortable topic of most students being terrible. Most of us here at Tech can easily be in the top 2 or 3% of the nation. I remember talking to a friend from Florida, and he was quite happy with a 1360, which we would probably cry over. Just thinking about it makes me feel like the education system is wrong, how average high school students are this much worse than us. Secondly, the explanations are intentionally malicious. Under stress or for under prepared students, the explanations could easily waste your time while not helping much. This possibility is much more disturbing to me than the other one, since it effectively keeps the poor “in their place”.

My takeaway from this is that College Board is an accepted form of theft. It only benefits colleges and itself, while the students experience unnecessary stress, pay far too much because of its monopoly, and have much less opportunity for social upward mobility than it is claimed. It is definitely possible for students to study for the SAT without paying anything and do well on it despite their family’s low income, but families with experience (parents or siblings went to college) or professional tutoring available due to their higher income have it much easier. It reminds me of what Vitaly said in class about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, how it represents racial oppression. The College Board is a way of keeping those at the top there (especially those College Board executives) and keeping the poor poor, while being able to claim that the system provides social upward mobility.