How Racial Differences in High School Curriculum Affect the SAT Scoring Gap Between Blacks and Whites

Clearly, one of the main factors in explaining the SAT racial gap is that black students almost across the board are not being adequately schooled to perform well on the SAT and similar tests. In 2006, 47 percent of white SAT test takers had taken trigonometry in high school compared to 36 percent of black test takers. Some 30 percent of white test takers had taken calculus in high school. Only 15 percent of black students had taken calculus, one half as many as whites.

Similar discrepancies appear in the level of instruction in English, the other major component of the SAT. Some 90 percent of white test takers had completed coursework in American literature compared to 80 percent of black test takers. For whites, 67 percent had taken high school courses in composition compared to 52 percent of blacks. Some 71 percent of whites and 61 percent of blacks had completed coursework in grammar. A full 41 percent of all white test takers had completed honors courses in English compared to 29 percent of black test takers.