US-style tests 'favour middle-class students'

American-style tests which government advisers believe will help people from poorer backgrounds get into university, actually favour the middle classes, it was claimed today.

Standard Attainment Tests are used by US institutions to assess critical thinking and are the benchmark for admission to higher education there.

Their use is being recommended by Professor Steven Schwartz, vicechancellor of Brunel University, as part of an inquiry into university admissions on the basis that they screen out bias towards middle-class pupils.

But research from the National Foundation for Educational Research found that they have the opposite effect.

The researchers said: "Some students appeared to perform less well on the SAT than expected: females compared to males and Asian, Chinese and those whose ethnicity was unknown compared to white students; whereas students in grammar schools did better than might be expected compared to comprehensive school students."

The NFER researchers looked at the results of 9,000 pupils who took part in a pilot study organised by the Sutton Trust - the education charity headed by the millionaire philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl.

They found confirmation of fears already expressed in the US that middle class children can benefit from coaching in the tests and achieve better results.