Contextualizing the SAT: Experimental Evidence on College Admissions Recommendations for Low-Socioeconomic-Status Applicants

• In Event: Contextualizing Issues of Access in Education

Abstract

This study conducts a randomized controlled trial to determine whether providing students’ test scores in context—how they perform relative to their school and neighborhood peers—increases the likelihood that admissions officers (n = 321) would recommend admitting low-SES applicants. Admissions officers in the contextual condition were significantly more likely to accept a low-SES applicant than those without contextual information on test scores, but they were also more likely to accept the high-SES applicant. This finding both supports emerging research suggesting that more robust contextual data may influence admissions officers to admit more low-SES applicants, but it also suggests that context signals may be more complex than previously portrayed.

Authors

• Michael Bastedo, University of Michigan

• Kristen Glasener, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• K. C. Deane, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Nicholas A. Bowman, University of Iowa