The Persisting Racial Gap on the SAT College Entrance Examination 

In 2011, 215,816 African-American high school seniors took the SAT college entrance examination. They represented 13 percent of all SAT test takers in the Class of 2011.

The mean score for blacks on the combined critical reading and mathematical portions of the SAT was 855. This was a two-point decline from a year ago.

The mean score for whites on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT was 1063, 208 points higher than the mean score for blacks.

The long-term trend in the racial scoring gap on the SAT is not encouraging. Since 1988, the racial gap on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT has increased from 189 points to 208 points.

Copyright © 2011. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.