Reginald A. Byron
August 18, 2015
... income both before and after instructor led discussions of the sociological imagination. This exercise
in your class and put the average SAT scores on three different Powerpoint slides (one for gender
In the longer term, students will be able to apply their sociological imaginations to SAT scores
question about the sociological imagination and how it helps them to evaluate SAT score gaps. Seventy three
words, what does the sociological imagination ask of us? (4 points) Below is a condensed table of average SAT scores for millions of college bound seniors who took the exam in 2014 (i.e., think about our in-class exercise). How does the sociological imagination help us to understand the a) gender, b) ethnicity, and c) family income average SAT score gaps noted in the table? (2 points for each part –please provide an answer for parts a, b, and c).
Table 1: Average SAT scores by gender, ethnicity, and family income in 2014
Reading
Math
Writing
Male
499
530
481
Gender
Female
495
499
492
Black
431
429
418
Ethnicity
White
529
534
513
$0 -$20,000
436
459
429
Family Income
More than $200,000
569
588
565
References
Buchmann, Claudia, Dennis J. Condron, and Vincent J. Roscigno. 2010. “Shadow Education, American Style: Test Preparation, the SAT and College Enrollment.” Social Forces 89(2): 435-462.
Diamond, John B. and James P. Huguley. 2014. “Testing the Oppositional Culture Explanation in Desegregated Schools: The Impact of Racial Differences in Academic Orientations on School Performance,” Social Forces 93(2): 747-777.
Garoutte, Lisa and Donna Bobbitt-Zeher. 2011. “Changing Students’ Perceptions of Inequality? Combining Traditional Methods and a Budget Exercise to Facilitate a Sociological Perspective.” Teaching Sociology 39(3): 227-243.
Goldsmith, Pat Antonio. 2006. “Learning to Understand Inequality and Diversity: Getting Students Past Ideologies.” Teaching Sociology 34(3): 263-277.
Gunderson, Elizabeth A., Gerardo Ramirez, Susan C. Levine, and Sian L. Bellock. 2012. “The Role of Parents and Teachers in the Development of Gender-Related Math Attitudes.” Sex Roles 66: 153-166.
Henslin, James. 2014. Social Problems: A Down-to-Earth Approach. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Santelices, Maria Veronica and Mark Wilson. 2010. “Unfair Treatment? The Case of Freedle, the SAT, and the Standardization Approach to Differential Item Functioning.” Harvard Educational Review 80(1): 106-133.
Analyzing SAT Scores
Your sex:
Your year in college:
Your race:
Your social class:
List three patterns you notice by gender.
1.
2.
3.
List three reasons why you think these patterns exist.
1.
2.
3.
List three patterns you notice by race/ethnicity.
1.
2.
3.
List three reasons why you think these patterns exist.
1.
2.
3.
List three patterns you notice by family income/class.
1.
2.
3.
List three reasons why you think these patterns exist.
1.
2.
3.
Does the “sociological imagination” affect your ideas about the distribution of SAT scores and if so, how? ..."
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Subject Area(s):
- Education
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Resource Type(s):
- Class Activity
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Class Level(s):
- College 100
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Class Size(s):
- Small
- Abstract:
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A growing body of scholarship suggests that sociologists who teach undergraduate students must first confront students’ preconceived ideologies and misconceptions before teaching them how to think sociologically (Garoutte and Bobbit-Zeher 2011; Goldsmith 2006). This...