UGA Research Explores Little-Known Chapter in College Desegregation

Many of the battles to desegregate Southern colleges and universities were fought in public, but efforts to desegregate the standardized testing that is often a prerequisite to admission have, until now, received little attention. Now, a new University of Georgia study reveals how two men traveled the Deep South, facing hostility and risking violence, to ensure that students received fair and impartial treatment.

"We know a lot of the big stories of the civil rights era, but this is a smaller, virtually unknown one," said study author Jan Bates Wheeler, associate director for accreditation at the UGA Office of Institutional Effectiveness. "It's an example of how a few people put forth a lot of effort at great personal risk to make higher education available to people who were being denied access."

College entrance exams such as the SAT require that students be tested impartially and under the same conditions. In the segregated South of the early 1960s, however, black students were routinely turned away from testing sites, which were almost always at all-white high schools or colleges. Wheeler notes that some colleges and universities required the SAT as prerequisite to admission purely to create a nearly insurmountable hurdle for prospective black students.

When black students were allowed to take the exam, white school administrators often placed them in a separate - and usually inferior - location. One group of black students in Columbia, South Carolina, for example, took the 3-hour SAT in a poorly-lit basement while the proctor talked loudly to an assistant. Wheeler uncovered evidence that Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, the first two black students admitted to UGA, were initially turned away from their SAT testing center.

In response to such abuses, the College Board, the not-for-profit organization that administers the SAT, began an ambitious campaign in 1960 to desegregate the testing centers. The men who designed the plan intentionally kept the effort from the public. "They didn't want publicity because they knew that it would further solidify the massive resistance against school desegregation," Wheeler said. "Even after they were successful, they didn't want a history written because they didn't want the school administrators who had cooperated with them to get into trouble."

Wheeler, who recently received her doctorate from the UGA Institute of Higher Education and conducted the research for her dissertation, examined more than 10,000 pages of letters, memos and reports to create the first comprehensive history of what was called a "campaign of quiet persuasion" to desegregate testing centers in the Deep South. The effort was led by the late Ben Cameron Jr. of Sewanee, Tenn., a Southern liberal who -- in a telling display of the changes that were roiling the South -- was the son and namesake of the judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit who worked to prevent James Meredith from becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi.

The junior Cameron served with black sailors in World War II but returned to a society where blacks weren't allowed the same freedoms he enjoyed. Wheeler said Cameron's wartime experiences inspired him to work toward a society where skin color is not a barrier to college admission, even if it meant risking his safety and his relationship with his segregationist father.

Between 1960 and 1965, Cameron and staff member Ben Gibson of Atlanta traveled to nearly every school district in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina to push for desegregation of testing centers. They met with school principals and other officials who oversaw the centers and presented them with two options: maintain a desegregated testing center with equal treatment for all or lose the prestige and convenience associated with being a testing center.

Racial slurs were often hurled at the men, and one school superintendent tried to intimidate Gibson by taking him to a meeting of the segregationist White Citizens Council and on a tour of neighborhoods that were still smoldering from race riots. In Jackson, Miss., the police and the FBI trailed Cameron -- the latter for his protection and the former for unknown reasons. "They were never in any immediate physical danger," Wheeler said, "but they knew that was always a possibility."

Not all of the schools they visited were hostile. Sister Mary Fidelis, head of St. Vincent's Academy for Girls in Savannah, readily agreed to provide up to 500 seats for students of any color. But dozens of testing sites were steadfast in clinging to segregation and were closed by Cameron and Gibson. In some cases, the closing necessitated the opening of testing locations at military bases, including at Redstone Arsenal, the heart of the Army's rocket and missile programs, in Huntsville, Ala.

By 1965, Cameron and Gibson had succeeded in their "campaign of quiet persuasion." They received input from an advisory committee that included well-known figures such as Ralph McGill, publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, and Stephen Wright, president of Fisk University, but traveled the South on their site visits alone. "They were committed to creating a level playing field for all students," Wheeler said. "They stuck to their principles when it would have been easier not to."

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Five Georgia High Schools Win Governor's Cup

Governor Sonny Perdue and State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox honored five Georgia high schools today with Governor’s Cup trophies for improvement in SAT scores. Governor Perdue initiated the statewide competition in 2003 as part of an overall effort to raise Georgia's SAT scores.

"In any competition – athletic or academic – how you prepare is how you’ll play. Georgia's students are working harder than ever to perform well on the SAT,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. "I know that dedicated teachers, involved parents and hard-working students all worked together on this outstanding achievement. I’m pleased to recognize their collective success and present these schools with the Governor’s Cup trophies."

Each of the five high schools that won their respective classes was awarded a Governor's Cup trophy and a $2,000 grant towards SAT preparation resources. Juniors and seniors at the winning schools also received T-shirts. The Governor's Cup challenge is based on high school athletic regions and classifications previously assigned by the Georgia High School Association. The winning schools are:

Towns County High School Towns County A

Model High School Floyd County AA

Crisp County High School Crisp County AAA

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School Catoosa County AAAA

Savannah Arts Academy Chatham County AAAAA

"This type of improvement on the SAT comes from focusing on the importance of reading, writing and analytical thinking across all areas of the curriculum," said Superintendent Cox. "Our Governor's Cup winners are showing the entire state what happens when you combine hard work and high expectations. Congratulations to all of the students and educators in these winning schools."

A regional champion trophy and a $1,000 grant were also awarded to 32 high schools with the largest numerical improvement in SAT scores in their region. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. is a partner in the Governor’s Cup, providing all prizes to the winning schools.

The Governor's Cup challenge is a part of Governor Perdue's efforts to improve students' performance on the SAT and their potential for success in post-secondary education. Along with the Governor's Cup challenge, Governor Perdue also launched gacollege411.org, an online resource providing post-secondary education planning materials to students statewide.

Governor Perdue and Superintendent Cox have also made free online SAT prep classes available to all high school students. In 2006-2007, nearly 40 percent of Georgia's high school students from private, public and home school programs used the SAT prep class.

Governor Perdue has placed graduation coaches in Georgia's middle and high schools to identify students who otherwise might not graduate and help them back on the path towards a diploma.

Governor Perdue and Superintendent Kathy Cox also announced the 2008 top score winners. The following schools demonstrated the highest SAT scores in their GHSA class over a 3 year period:

Trion City Trion High School A

Decatur City Decatur High School AA

Richmond Davidson Magnet School AAA

Fayette McIntosh High School AAAA

Cobb Walton High School AAAAA

The following schools represent the Governor’s Cup regional winners: Alpharetta High School, Banneker High School, Brooks County High School, Burke County High School, Callaway High School, Campbell High School, Central High School, Chestatee High School, Clinch County High School, Colquitt County High School, Dawson County High School, Decatur High School, Douglass High School, Forsyth Central High School, Gordon Lee High School, Lakeside High School, Lincoln County High School, Long County School, Madison County High School, Mary Persons High School, Mays High School, McNair High School, Metter High School, Newnan High School, Oconee County High School, Parkview High School, Schley Middle High School, Sequoyah High School, Spencer High School, Treutlen Middle/High School, Upson-Lee High School, Vidalia Comprehensive High School.

For more information on the Governor’s Cup, visit www.satrocks.com.

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UGA Findings Support Controversial SAT Writing Test

The first independent, academic study of the redesigned SAT college entrance exam finds that the new writing portion is a much better predictor of academic success than the verbal and math portions of the exam.

Three economists in the University of Georgia Terry College of Business analyzed data from more than 4,300 test takers and, unlike a recent study published by the group that administers the test, accounted for factors – such as level of parental education and the high school the student attended – that strongly influence success in college.

The writing section of the test was introduced in March 2005, and the researchers note that the lack of data on its effectiveness has led nearly half of the nation’s colleges and universities to disregard the scores. David Mustard, the associate professor of economics who co-authored the study with professor Christopher Cornwell and student Jessica Van Parys, said the team’s finding suggests that schools shouldn’t ignore SAT writing scores.

“Schools who don’t use the writing portion of the SAT are foregoing an opportunity to choose a class of students that will score higher GPAs, enroll in more credit hours, will be less likely to withdraw from classes and are likely to do well in a whole array of different variables,” Mustard said. “They’re really throwing out information that will help them choose a more qualified class.”

The researchers found that with each 100-point increase in SAT writing scores, first-year students:

Earn GPAs that are, on average, .07 points higher;
Earn .18 points higher in freshman English classes; and
Earn .54 more credit hours.
The SAT verbal (now known as the critical-reading section) was also a significant predictor of collegiate success, but not nearly as powerful as the writing section. With each 100-point increase on the SATV, students earned freshman GPAs that were .03 points higher, less than one half the .07 increase for the SATW.

Cornwell points out that the significance of SATV scores diminishes when the writing score is taken into account.

“Statistically speaking, the verbal section doesn’t add much predictive value beyond the writing section,” Cornwell said.

Still, the researchers said it is too soon to eliminate the verbal portion of the test. “The writing section could be a better measure of academic ability than the verbal,” Van Parys said, “but another explanation is that it’s so new that students haven’t yet learned to game the test.”

The researchers found high school GPA is still a much stronger predictor of collegiate success than any individual or combined sections of the SAT, but note that the test is clearly useful in differentiating between students who have equal GPAs.

The team examined data from incoming students at the University of Georgia in 2006, the year in which the first cohort of students to take the redesigned test enrolled. They said their results are likely to apply to other large, selective public universities.

The UGA study comes on the heels of one conducted by The College Board, the group that administers the SAT. The College Board study used a larger sample, Mustard said, but only took into account broad institutional characteristics like size and selectivity and whether the college or university was public or private. The College Board study only looked at the predictive value of SAT scores with regard to one variable – freshman GPA – while the UGA study looked at several outcome variables in addition to freshman GPA, including grades in freshman English and math classes, credit hours enrolled, credit hours earned and the probability that a student will lose Georgia’s merit-based HOPE scholarship. Notably, the researchers found that predictive effect of the SATW is higher than the SATV in all of the outcomes, excluding those related to mathematics.

The UGA study also controlled for personal variables, such as the number of advanced placement classes taken in high school, and family characteristics, such as the level of parental education. These statistical controls are critical, the researchers note, because such factors have a significant influence on collegiate success. Controlling for the high school the student attended, which takes into account the quality of the school, community demographic variables and the effects of peers, increases the explanatory power of their model by 50 percent, for example.

“There are so many variables that influence success in college that simply correlating SAT scores with first-year GPAs doesn’t tell you much about the predictive value of the test,” Mustard said. “By holding constant a range of factors, we were essentially able to take a person that has the same family characteristics, education, high school GPA, race, ethnicity and gender and then see how well variations in SAT scores predict success in college. Despite what critics might say, the test scores really do matter.”