The Limits of Egalitarianism: Responses to a Racial Frame on the Use of Standardized Tests in College Admissions

This article presents the results of a survey experiment fielded on a 1,000-person live interview telephone poll designed to test the effects of a racial frame on attitudes about the use of standardized tests in college admissions. Respondents were presented with one of two versions of a question about whether it is fair for colleges to always admit the candidate with higher standardized test scores when comparing two applicants. Both versions of the question informed respondents that talented students who face disadvantages in life may perform more poorly on standardized tests than similarly talented students who do not face disadvantages. The treatment version of the question additionally identified the students who face disadvantages as Black and Hispanic, and the students who do not as white. The treatment had a statistically significant effect. Respondents were more likely to rate basing admissions decisions on standardized tests as fair in the treatment version of the question than in the control. Further analysis of the data by race and party identification shows that direction of the effect is consistent across all groups but Hispanic respondents. Additional research and larger sample sizes are necessary to determine whether estimated differences in these effects are statistically significant.