The history of the SAT has origins that date back to the First World War. The original test, known as the "Army Alpha" was an IQ test administered by the United States Army to evaluate the intelligence of new recruits. Following the war, the Army Alpha was adapted and transformed for the purpose of a college admissions test, (The Big Test: SAT I, p.l) .The first test was experimentally administered to a few thousand college applicants in 1926. In 1933, President of Harvard University James Bryant Conant, implemented a new scholarship program for academically gifted males. As

an instrument to measure the intelligence of college applicants, Conant approved of the Army Alpha, (now known as the SAT I) because he felt that is measured pure intelligence regardless of the taker's high school education During the Second World War, in 1942, all pre-existing College Board admissions tests were abolished, which left the SAT to become the uniform test for college admissions. Later in 1944, ETS was chartered and the SAT was en route to becoming the standard college admissions tool for universities across the nation, (The Big Test: SAT I, p.1).

gaps constant, but they continued to broaden. Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, editors of the 1998 book, The Black- White Test Score Gap, argued that African Americans will always score lower than European Americans on vocabulary, reading and math tests, as well as on tests such as the SAT I. According to Jencks and Phillips, this cultural gap appears before kindergarten and persists into adulthood. As it relates to parenting and family education history, educational attainment, income, wealth, and number of children, African American parents are more likely to have been nurtured in less-advantaged environments, (Jencks and Phillips, p.5). Therefore, a minor explanation of the gap between African American and European Americans on the SAT I may be the result of past discrimination in housing, education and employment opportunities of decades past. In any event, there are studies that have tested the actual reliability and consistency of the ever controversial SAT I as a whole.

secondary school level academic attainment, and generates scores related to success in college. The test itself is primarily multiple-choice, however the SAT I does include a short answer portion in the mathematical section. Each question must pass a series of rigorous statistical, and sensitivity reviews before it is incorporated into the exam. Every year, more than 2 million students nationwide take the test, (The Big Test: SAT I, p.l) Consequently, every fall, the College Board publishes information concerning the demographics, socioeconomic, and academic data on about 1 million high school seniors with SAT I scores. In this scoring group, African American students by far, perform the worst on both sections of this standardized test. This can put them at a disadvantaged when applying to schools in the state of Virginia.

There are over100-accredited colleges in the state of Virginia that all require the students to take the SAT as a part of the admission process. Throughout these

Some topics in this essay:
European American, Code Virginia, African American, College Board, Jencks Phillips, Reasoning Test, Meredith Phillips, Americans Furthermore, Virginia Assessment, African Americans, african americans, european americans, jencks phillips, african american, test sat, school seniors, college admissions, college board, army alpha, standardized test, colleges universities virginia, test score gap, test sat pl, level academic attainment, score college bound,