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CHAPTER 13
INEQUALITY AND ACHIEVEMENT Table 13.5 College-Bound Seniors' SAT Test Scores by Annual Family Income, 2008a
Average Scores on SAT Sections'1 Critical Annual Family lncomec
Reading
Math
Writing
Total
$0-520,000
$20,000-$40,000 $40,000-$60,000 $60,000-$80,000 $80,000-$100,000 $100,000-$120,000
$12O,OOO-$14O,OOO $140,000-$1 60,000 $160,000-$200,000 More than $200,000 All TestTakersc aln 2008, 1,518,859 seniors took the SAT; of those 568,649 (or 37%) did not provide information about their family incomes. So, the data in this table represent answers from 950,210 students.
bSAT scores range from 200 to 800 for each section of the test (total scores range from 600 to 2400). SAT used to be called "Scholastic Aptitude Test," then it became "Scholastic
Assessment Test"; today, the Educational Testing Service (which owns and administers the test) says "SAT is not an initialism."
cAs a point of information, the chief executive officer of the Educational Testing Service, Kurk Landgraf, recently admitted that his test score on the SAT was 1060 out of a possible 1600 (Evans and Glovin 2006).
Source: College Board, 2008 College-Bound Seniors, Total Croup Profile Report.
3. Study the data presented in table 13.5. Then answer the questions posed below. a. Briefly describe the relationship between the variables shown in that table. b. Then indicate, in your informed judgment, whether these
data tend to lend support to a cultural or to a structural explanation of social class differences? Explain your reasoning.
Answers and Discussion a. I first read about the Matthew effect in a book by Robert Merton titled Sociological Ambivalence and Other Essays (1976). At one point in the book, Merton made reference to the