PRAVDA

AN ALLEGORICAL NEWSPAPER

OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF AMERICA

PUBLISHED IN WIDEMOUNT PENNSYLVANIA

EDITOR ANTHONY J. FEJFAR B.A., J.D., ESQ., COIF

THIS IS A FICTIONAL, NEWS STORY, ANY RESEMBLENCE TO ANY

REAL PERSON, PLACE, OR EVENT, IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.

© Copyright 2010 by Anthony J. Fejfar

The American Educational and Licensing System is Corrupt

In America, the idea is that if you work hard in school, basically obey the rules,

and try to be a good person, then, you and your family do well and you have a good life.

In America, social status and economic and professional success are supposed to be

based upon merit, namely, educational merit, and not upon authority, and not upon status

involving race, ethnicity, religion, geography, etc. Yet, the American Myth of

Meritocracy is not true, because, you see, the educational and licensing system in

America is corrupt. Recall, that in grade school you were probably required to take tests

in the Spring, called an “Iowa Basic Skills Test.” If the tests were graded fairly, then,

the Iowa Basic Skills test, and others, would be basically fair. However, the parents and

students never receive the Raw Score for each test, but instead only a scaled score. Now,

the assumption that many of us typically make when a test is scaled is that everybody did

so poorly in certain aspects of the standardized test, that everyone’s test score must be
scaled upward. In fact, what they don’t tell you is that a student’s test score can not only

be scaled upward, but also scaled downward, based on a variety of factors which are

basically political. And, what is true of the Iowa Basic Skills Test is also true of the

College Entrance Tests such as the ACT, the SAT, and the MAT. Moreover, this same

type of upward/downward factors is also true of graduate school admission tests such as

the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission

Test), the MCAT (Medical School Admissions Test), and the GRE (Graduate School

Admissions Test). And, if this were not enough, upward/downward scaling based upon

political factors also is used to grade licensure test for Lawyers, Doctors, Psychologists,

Dentists, etc. In other words, the Bar Exam and other Licensure Board tests are rigged

with political factors, having nothing to do with actual performance on the exam.

Now, you might wonder what some of the factors are in grading both educational

achievement tests, college admission tests, graduate school admission tests, and Bar and

Board licensure tests. Well here are some of the political factors used, typically to lower

the test taker’s raw score:

1. race

2. ethnicity

3. parent’s occupation

4. parent’s income

5. home zip code identifying your neighborhood

6. your gradeschool

7. your junior high or middle school

8. your highschool
 9. your undergraduate college or university

10. your major

11. your student loan debt

12. your political party and your parents

13. your religion

14. number of years that your family of origin has lived in the United States

For example, Joe Smith might have gotten a raw score of 750 out of 800 on the

LSAT (Law School Admission Test), but since he was Roman Catholic, and grew up in a

middle class to working poor white neighborhood, his LSAT score was lowered by 100

points to a scaled score of 650. Or, Bill Green, who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood

and was a Jew, and who had a raw score on the LSAT of 730, was scaled downward to a

scaled score of 630. The same is true of a law Bar Exam score. Stan Smith might of

passed the Bar with a very high score, but then, his raw score was lowered to a barely

passing score, or, was scored as failing the Bar Exam. Moreover, some ethnic, or racial

category, or even where your father went to college, say an Ivy League school, could

raise a particular test taker’s score on the LSAT from a mediocre 550 score to a 750

scaled, reported, score. The foregoing system is corrupt and is clearly a GATT violation

and must be stopped. GATT, the General Agreement on Tariff’s and Trade, prohibits

barriers to a service industry such as law, or medicine, which are corrupt or irrational.

GATT obviously prohibits the use of political factors in grading and scoring college and

graduate school admissions tests and board licensure tests.