For years, people like Thomas Sowell have argued that affirmative action regularly places Black students into schools for which they are not educationally qualified, that in so doing it dooms them to less challenging courses and failure. In debates about affirmative action , the performance of Black students on SAT tests is rarely mentioned. It should be. It is not only supportive of his arguments but the most damning evidence of the inadequacy of the urban school systems from which most of these students come.
 
According to the College Board, 1,877 African American students nationwide scored higher than 1300 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT last year, compared with nearly 150,000 students overall who achieved that score 

A SAT score of 1300 is a good baseline for competitive college—level  academic work .Only 1.2% of the students who achieved that level this year were Black. That's not enough to meet  the demand of the Ivies let alone all the other first level colleges vying for these students.
 
Until we face this fact head on and institute educational change at the elementary and high school levels, we are engaged in a  harmful charade.
 
Clarice R. Feldman  11 23 04