SAT scores see sharpest decline in 31 years

[underpants]

This was the best most succinct headline I could find.
http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060830/NEWS/608300391/1001

WASHINGTON — The high school class of 2006 got stuck with a new, longer version of the SAT, and it didn't fare well on it. Average reading and math scores fell a total of seven points — the sharpest decline in 31 years.


College-bound females outscored males on the SAT exam's first-ever writing section, the College Board announced Tuesday. The average female score was 502 out of a possible 800, compared to 491 for males.



Overall scores on reading and math fell nationally. The reading score dropped from 508 to 503, while math scores dropped from 520 to 518 from a year ago. As they have for more than 30 years, boys did better than girls in both categories.

It was the first time since 1991 that performance on both math and reading declined, according to College Board figures.

Despite the slight drop, blacks, American Indians and students for whom English is a second language all saw slight gains. Comparisons between states are difficult because the number of test-takers varies widely across the nation, the board said. New York state had the highest participation rate with 88 percent of high school seniors taking the SAT, while only 4 percent took it in Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota.

[bluestateguy]

1. Making it, in George W. Bush's America

At least those who did well will have an easier time getting into college.

If they can pay for it.

[HereSince1628]

2. Here in the Milwaukee those taking the SAT are more affluent

than those taking only the ACT. So the scores may not only be difficult to compare because of numbers of students taking the test, but also because the socio-economic background is biased.

[saigon68]

51. They will be heading to Harvard,Yale, Brown, Princeton this fall

LOL

Like this asswipe

[ananda]

3. No Child Left Behind..

.. a complete failure.

Why am I not surprised?!

[JoFerret]

16. I would hate to see the SAT

used to measure any program. No Child Left Untested is a great disaster but this isn't an indication of that.

[zreosumgame]

41. well, it actually IS a measure of NCLB

After all this is the result when you teach only to a test, and not the subjects...

[Supersedeas]

21. No Child is working wonders, isn't it Dimson?

[Wickerman]

4. sounds like its a new version

I'd say their norming conventions weren't quite up to snuff. Sharp decline? Looks more like the kind of difference you see when moving to a new version of the test. 5 points reading, 2 points math? I'm not going to get my boxers in a wad over that - its simply a re-setting of the scale.

This, too me, is the key sentence:
Despite the slight drop, blacks, American Indians and students for whom English is a second language all saw slight gains. That easily should've been the headline.

Lets give it up for the teachers who have worked for that change, the test makers who made a more fair test and the kids who are working hard.

[AnneD]

27. ITA...

The other thing about this test is that with the new section-it is about 3 1/2 hours long. I don't know of too many adults that can take a test for THAT long and stay focused. The common complaint I heard was that it was physically and mentally draining. So much focuses on the test-your chance for scholarships, choice of schools, etc. Gone are the days when you can saunter in and take it cold like I did. My daughter will take it in the spring or summner of 07. She spent this summer taking a geometry course and the rest of the summner taking a prep test. She really has shown improvement from PSAT to precourse SAT to post course SAT. I found the best and most affordable SAT prep course but I was still out $399. It is worth it as my daughter will need all the scholarship help she can get. I work in the public schools and cannot afford to send my kid to college. She may have to go to Jr. college and then finish up at a university but even that might be difficult. What has happened to America. And worse yet what WILL happen to America if we don't have an educated population. Well, at least we will finally be able to compete with Third World Countries for those manufacturing jobs we lost.

[Ka hrnt]

38. Ooops...

Yeah, I agree it's nothing to get in a snit over. However...

"...test makers who made a more fair test..."

I've never understood this argument that the test is somehow biased toward white people. How is (was?) the test biased?

[LostinVA]

52. Biased towards white males from higher-level socio-econ backgrounds

Google SAT biased -- or even SAT biased male white. Loads of info.

[Ka hrnt]

54. Sorry; don't see it.

Most of the information I saw was biased and showed no cause-effect relationship...

[Double T]

5. The bush mentality is sweeping through the population.........

we are beginning to see the affects of being raised on Fox News and having a president that struggles to put syllables together; call it the bush brain drain.

[muesa]

6. The Republican Dumbing Down of America

The fights over

---the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance,

---the presence of verses from the Protestant Christian Gospel on white boards

---"Intelligent Design"

---making science political (stem cell research, climatology)

---student visas (and post-doc and junior faculty visas)

have had their expected effect.

[underpants]

9. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[Kip Humphrey]

7. all children left behind thanks to GW's gambit to dumb down America

[fshrink]

8. Not enough prayers before exams.

[underpants]

12. We don't need a "moment of silence"

what we need is a "moment of math" or a "moment of science"

--joke that was going around when Va. instituted its "moment of silence" nonsense.

[mainegreen]

10. I was blown away to hear Maine's written average was under 500!

Seriously, how on earth do you score under 500 written?

:wtf:

[Tesha]

14. See Frei Republic for examples. (NT)

[Bill McBlueState]

47. shouldn't be surprising

The scores are intentionally set so 500 is average. Roughly half of all students should score below that, and half above. It makes sense that the average within a particular state would be slightly below or above 500.

[moondust]

11. Some colleges are doing away with SATs

as an admission requirement. CNN had a guy from one of those colleges on a day or two ago who had some vague reason for it like they "weren't getting satisfactory results" from the SAT scores. To Soledad O'Brien's credit she asked him if the SAT wasn't about the only measure that put all prospective college students on the same playing field no matter what background they came from. I think he had another vague answer to that.

I figure that's exactly why they would do away with them: they don't want to be obligated by "reasonably fair" SAT scores to admit a smart poor kid ahead of a dumb rich kid. It may be all about money and endowment. Republican times indeed.

He didn't mention anything about ACT tests.

[NashVegas]

22. SAT Scores ARE Worthless

When there is an industry that revolves around helping students get a competitive edge, those who have the $$ to get the edge are the ones who get the better scores.

I believe there may be a correlation (not necessarily causation) between the normally SAT prepped scores, and the scores for this new test, which the industry probably hadn't gotten its hands on yet. Next year, I'd expect to see the scores go back up.

[WhiteTara]

13. another catastrophic success for the monkey

he was desperate to leave all the children behind, not just one....he's such a uniter and decider that way.

[MysteryToMyself]

15. This is the Bushite pattern

The Bushites, when we think they have failed, have won.

For instance, their main goal is no taxes for anything except the space program and military. When the taxpayer spends enough for research to where space travel is safe, then the Bushites will make a fortune on space travel.

And look how they raked in big profits from this war, charging the costs to the deficit.

They want privatized schools. They are working as hard as they can to make the public schools do lousy, but the teachers are still doing an excellent job teaching our students. Some tests show the public schools have tested better than the private schools.

They aren't worried about the deficit, but are extremely worried about Social Security. They want it privatized so Wall Street and the insurance companies will get 30% profits and the annuities contracts.

Look at Medicare. Many think the Bushites have failed with it. They took it from a surplus to teetering on bankruptcy. They haven't failed. That is exactly what they wanted.

Okay, so if the public school students pass their test, they change the tests.

[WhiteTara]

18. I keep forgetting they want to drown the government

in a bathtub like NO...except when it comes to their shit and then they damn sure want it taken care of pronto.

[samsingh]

17. the dumbification of the country continues

[MysteryToMyself]

19. Bushites are like termites

destroying the foundation of America.

This link is about errors in grading the tests, but I am not sure if it is the last tests or not:

http://www.fairtest.org/univ/2006SATErrorHome.html

This link seems to have a lot about the education and college systems:

http://www.fairtest.org/

[depakid]

20. "Journalists" sure are stupid

If this is a new, longer version of the test, the scores didn't "fall" because there's no baseline data to compare them to.

[Yavin4]

23. Here's the Most Chilling Stat from the Article

"only 4 percent took it in Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota."

These states are not producing a college-educated populace, and that spells long term doom for them. An uneducated populace means that they will have a permanent underclass.

Also, I did horribly on my SATs.

[Lisa]

24. by making education unattainable (and even seem undesirable)

... those in power are harming the country. I totally agree, Yavin4 -- they do not seem to care that not having an educated population is going to cause social and economic problems in the future. It sometimes seems as though Bush (who had the chance to go to Andover, Yale, and Harvard) is playing "sour grapes" with higher education. Every time he dumps on "elitist intellectuals", and brags about how "you have a PhD but notice I'm the President!", it makes me cringe. There are plenty of smart, talented people who would have loved to have that chance, and who would have been far better at his job besides!

As a teacher, I have found that there are lots of students who were "written off" by their high school guidance counsellors, but who can actually do quite well with a bit more attention and tutoring. I'm a "B" student, and while it took me a bit longer to get a graduate degree, I did succeed eventually. In an environment where schools are looking at SAT scores and nothing else, those talents will just not be found and encouraged. One of my best friends was told to forget about postsecondary education (based more on the fact that she was from a working-class family, than on how intelligent she was). She later became a transportation planner, and I suspect that she could have been an engineer or architect if she'd been encouraged. And I can think of other examples too. My state might have saved a few bucks on student loans, but in the long run, they deprived our society of teachers, lawyers, and other professionals (and skilled tradespeople too, by not having adequate apprenticeship programs).

[Yavin4]

25. Bottom Line, Unskilled Laborers Will Never Be Middle Class

Gone are the days whereby one could work their way into the middle class. Today, you need marketable skills just to have a shot, not a guarantee, just a shot.

[moondust]

28. Wrong.

Three of those states have some of the best secondary school systems in the country. Some colleges use the ACT tests for admissions instead of the SAT. Iowa is one them because ACT is based in Iowa.

Do your homework.

Google http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=sat+scores+by+state&btnG=Search">SAT scores by state.

[AngryAmish]

30. ACT popular in Iowa

Iowa has some of the best public schools in the nation. I would not have taken the SAT unless I had to in order to satisfy my scholarship - it was not needed for midwest colleges. I suspect it is true for the Dakotas also.

[9119495]

34. In Iowa we take the ACT. It is based here and colleges

basically only look at the ACT. Only kids going far out west or east are urged to take the SAT--but only after they have taken the ACT.

[dsc]

46. The ACT is the usual test in those states

[Ravy]

26. All children left behind (n/t)

[LisaM]

29. Let's see, homeschooling, teaching to the test, charter schools, vouchers

and scores went DOWN? Gasp.

:sarcasm:

[LeftyMom]

31. Homeschoolers test well and do very well in college.

Look it up before you insult so many DUers and thier kids.

[LisaM]

32. I know parents of six home-schooled kids

and not one of them even WENT to college. One of them, at age 21, has finally started going to community college. She's a nice enough kid, but so young for her age that when I met her, I thought she was about 12; she was actually 19.

My point, though, was that there are many factors eroding away the institution of public schools. My father taught in a public school for more than 35 years; he is the smartest person I know and he was a great teacher, too. I seethe when I hear people complain about public schools when the truth is that the anti-tax crowd has been pecking away at them for years. For one, they stripped out art, music, and even PE in a lot of schools and then are surprised when test scores dip -- it's proven that a good grounding in all those things improves test scores significantly.

In my district, the school receives a certain amount of money from the state for each enrolled student. Students who are home-schooled or in charter schools obviously take money away from the school - but they nevertheless wanted to be able to play on the school's sports teams and even be in the band!

You may have a very good reason for home-schooling your child, but I think the state of our public schools is a shame on this nation.

[LeftyMom]

35. Funding problems aren't homeschoolers fault

In most states we pay into the system and get nothing back. Most of us would prefer that to any potential interference limited participation would bring- this comes up a lot in Home Education magazine, which is the leading religion-neutral homeschooling publication.

The schools here don't lose money for my kid- he costs them nothing. The idea that they'd benefit if he enrolled is based on the presumtion that he could be educated on the cheap, and the remainder of his per-pupil allocation could be used for other children, who apparently deserve it more by virtue of not being homeschoolers. In any case, I pay taxes, my family pays taxes and we're as welcome to not use the school system they provide as we are not to drive down a particular road or not to avail ourselves of the county clinic's services when we fall ill.

In short, if there's a problem with how funds are distributed, feel free to fix it. If enough homeschooled kids want to do some sort of partial enrollment (something that happily isn't legal in many states including mine,) make an appropriate change in the funding law conditional to allowing thier participation. Don't blame the majority of homeschooled families who have no more involvement with the system than is legally mandated, and certainly don't insinuate that there's some sort of equivalent between homeschooling and charter schools, because there's not, though that's another thread.

[LisaM]

36. I think funding problems for public education is everyone's problem

I wish I could earmark my tax dollars towards it. But my POINT, which I guess isn't getting through, is that there are many factors affecting public schools right now and they are seriously underfunded. Having been educated in the public schools and having a father who taught and coached, with ethics, grace, and extreme intelligence, in the public school for his entire career, I feel deeply about this. I think a strong public school system benefits everyone and while I don't want to put words in your mouth, I would suspect that you agree.

[LeftyMom]

39. Of course strong public schools effect all of us

It just seems to me that the people who have the most stake are those with enrolled children. I don't want to tell them how to run something that serves thier needs anymore than I'd go tell the people three towns over that they should change thier zoning rules just because it has some effect on me when I head that direction.

The particular issue raised was per-pupil funding and it's relationship to homeschooling. I addressed that in my previous post, allong with the issue of partial enrollment. I didn't address per-pupil funding generally, primarilly because there's no issue there. I don't know about other places, but here it's a joke and even the well-funded districts in expanding areas are strapped for cash.

[gully]

57. SAT scores for homeschoolers:

In 2000, the group of home-schooled SAT takers also had higher SAT averages:

* The average SAT scores of home-schooled students were 568 Verbal and 532 Math, above the national averages of 505 Verbal and 514 Math.

* Among home schoolers---men's scores were 568 Verbal and 554 Math (vs. 507 Verbal and 533 Math nationwide); and women's scores were 568 Verbal and 513 Math (vs. 504 Verbal and 498 Math nationwide).

* Males were 46 percent of both the home-schooled and the national SAT populations, and women comprised 54 percent of both populations.

-------

Homeschoolers continue to exhibit academic excellence on national averages for college admissions tests when compared to public school students.

The ACT college admission exam scores show homeschoolers consistently performing above the national average. In both 2002 and 2003, the national homeschool average was 22.5, while the national average was 20.8.

The College Board, which administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) also notes the above-average performance of homeschoolers. In 2002, homeschoolers averaged 1092, 72 points higher than the national average of 1020. In 2001, homeschoolers scored 1100 on the SAT, compared to the national average of 1019. (2003 homeschool statistics not yet available.)

Homeschoolers would actually appear to be driving scores upward?

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200105070.asp

[Dora]

33. You are correlating four different phenomenons.

Of course, there are relationships, but the nature of those relationships are complex and not easily compartmentalized into the good/bad dichotomies we are fond of.

Home schooling? Can be good or bad, depending on the home and those who are doing the teaching. If we have the money and time when our son is of school age, we will consider homeschooling.

Vouchers? Bad news all around. Their only purpose is to divert public dollars to private enterprise.

Teaching to the test? That's a phenomenon that's occured with greater frequency over the past 30+ years as standardized tests have taken over the time that had been spent on teaching actual subject matter. When a teaching position or an entire school is threatened by closure as a result of low test scores, who can blame an administration or the teaching faculty for teaching to the test? It's a phenomenon that can only be resolved by reducing the number of mandated standardized tests. My suggestion is to eliminate standardized tests entirely, and professionalize our teachers by insisting they develop their own curricula and teaching plans. We also need to change how we evaluate and assess our children's knowledge and skills.

Charter schools can be either good or bad, it all depends on who is running the show.

[Ka hrnt]

37. Wow...

I've never seen such irrational argumentation. Yes, NCLB is crap. But before jumping to conclusions that this drop in SAT scores is somehow Bush related, you might want to reread the very first sentence of the article:

"The high school class of 2006 got stuck with a new, longer version of the SAT, and it didn't fare well on it."

It's a NEW test. One should expect a "re-centering" of the exam. Considering the emphasis put on these (we have a {I believe} mandatory "SAT Preparation" class at my school...) it makes sense that a new test would result in a shift in the the average scores. Relax. Calm down. Not everything is Bush's fault.

[fujiyama]

40. The article doesn't mention

why only 4% take it in a few states. Now poverty and low education rates in MS are definetely a factor, but IA's public education isn't on the same level.

That's partly due to the fact that many in those states take the ACT instead of the SAT. I knew several college bound classmates in HS that didn't bother with the SAT. Many colleges don't require them. I know that to be the case with the midwest. I believe many colleges in the south accept the ACT instead of the SAT as well.

And it's possible that acceptance of the ACT as a national test has grown as well since I took the two back in '99.

[5thGenDemocrat]

42. Bad time to mention that my HS class was 31 years ago?

We weren't very smart, but we DID have a real good football team.
John
Still smarter than the Republicans out in the township, though. Better football team, too (in fact, the best in Michigan in 1973).

[hedgehog]

43. True story

My daughter went to take her SAT and was told repeatedly not to turn ahead to the next section until told to do so. So she started her essay section and wrote an essay on cheese. The proctor announced that time was up and it was time to start the math section. That's when my daughter turned the page in the question book and found out that she was supposed to have written an essay on team work! (Other than that, she did pretty good-800 on English, 650 on Math!)

[Odin2005]

44. The problems with our schools are the VOTERS' fault.

The problem is that poor communities have less tax money to pay for education then the more well of communities. But fixing that imbalence would mean increasing taxes, and the better off people would scream bloody murder if thier taxes went to helping a poor inner-city school. It's all Classism and Racism.

[Nutmegger]

45. Plug into TeeVees and iPods

and plug out of learning. :(

[RamboLiberal]

48. Girls Achieve Rare SAT Scores - Outpace Boys in One Category

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2376202

While the average reading and math scores fell again this year on the SATs, the test results show a new sign of strength from girls.

For the first time in a generation, girls outperformed boys on one section of the exam, edging them out by 11 points in the writing portion of the test. The results raise new questions about gender, learning and a test that has become an American rite of passage.

"Since the '70s we haven't seen women score better than men on the SAT, so that is dramatic … absolutely," said Drew Deutsch, a vice president with Princeton Review, which offers preparation courses for the test.

The results released Tuesday were the first batch of test scores since the exam was revamped to include a graded 25 minute essay. High school junior Ana Merida, who is studying for the test now, said she believes the new test plays to her strengths.

"I can look at the question I am being asked and put my own knowledge and thoughts in the essay, rather than … filling out a bubble," Merida said.

[nashville_brook]

49. SHEESH! you need a study to know this? try Match.com!

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nikia]

53. Could the increased length of the test be a factor?

Back when there was only the verbal and math portions, I found the test a skill of mental endurance. I'd imagine with the added essay section, even more mental endurance is required.
Most high school students are used to taking multihour tests. They aren't used to concentrating for so long on anything. With an increase of ADD and tlelevision shows with more frequent commercial breaks, I suspect that the average high school student's mental endurance is decreasing. A fairer test would be shorter.

[depakid]

56. Seems to me that might be one question to ask

How people think that they can reliably compare results of two different tests and make assertions like this "journlist" has is beyond me.

I mean- this is really basic stuff that just about any kid taking the SAT would know.

[ReadTomPaine]

55. Mission Accomplished. n/t