The Persisting Racial Gap on the SAT College Entrance Examination

In 2010, 196,961 African-American high school seniors took the SAT college entrance examination. They represented 13 percent of all SAT test takers in the Class of 2010.

The mean score for blacks on the combined critical reading and mathematical portions of the SAT was 857. This was a two-point improvement from a year ago.

The mean score for whites on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT was 1064, 207 points higher than the mean score for blacks.

Despite a small two-point decline in the racial gap this year, the long-term trend is not encouraging. Since 1988, the racial gap on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT has increased from 189 points to 207 points.

Copyright © 2010. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.