<p>SAT</a> reading and math scores down in 2011, says College Board - latimes.com</p>
<p>I know this is a serious issue … but really, the article itself is hilarious. Example:</p>
<p>“[For the record, Sept. 14, 2:22 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the average scores in reading and math were down. The College Board says it is mean scores that are down.]”</p>
<p>^^Haha, I noticed that too! What??</p>
<p>“Student achievement remains stagnant and we continue to let failure fester in our education system.”</p>
<p>I mean, really …</p>
<p>Failure festering is not a pretty sight. </p>
<p>At least the journalist who caught the error in reporting average instead of mean was on his game that day.</p>
<p>Odd that SAT scores are down, but the NMSF cutoffs are way up in many states.</p>
<p>I wonder if this is one more symptom of the “two Americas” syndrome?</p>
<p>I feel like I have failed D2. But they are her scores, right? Or are they?</p>
<p>They mention 1972’s “low” scores. Wasn’t that before scores were recentered? Meaning that the 1972 score was much higher than today’s?</p>
<p>Really, this whole article is garbage.</p>
<p>The article may be garbage, but I suspect our local public high school remains at or below average - and it isn’t due to more minorities testing. We’ve been at or slightly below average for a few years now.</p>
<p>I lurk (mainly lurk) on cc to remind myself that there are good schools and students/parents who care about academics out there.</p>
<p>Well, in our area there are a record number of kids who aced the SAT and the ACT. Perfect scores are rising, anyway. :D</p>
<p>Michelle Hernandez original book noted the effect of the reentering in 1993(?), which was to literally explode the number of 800s upward. In effect the test has been dumbed down, I believe. There are hundreds of kids with 800s who wouldn’t have received them when we grew up. And the ones who would have are obscured in the cluster at the top. Edit: The 2010 class had nearly 12,000 800s in math, and 8600 in verbal(CR). </p>
<p>On the other hand, since they change the tests from time to time, I suppose its possible from year to year to have a question list that actually leads to slightly lower scores overall. It would be fascinating to study the SAT results in detail to ascertain both levels of mastery of certain skills and common mistakes made in reading and math. Changing one question could easily lead to that result, I believe. </p>
<p>My point is that a one year shift (previous comment notwithstanding) of a point or two may not actually indicate the people are less competent in an absolute sense.</p>
<p>My D was a few points short of that 1550 “benchmark.” Of course in those days they didn’t have the Writing. (Frankly, we’d have been happy if she’d scored a “mere” 1500.)</p>
<p>The report on the college board site says that the group of test takers was the most diverse and had the largest # of students who received fee waivers. So, I think the decline is due in part to the fact that a higher percentage of kids taking the test are first generation college, have parents who have limited knowledge of the English language, and are poor. I think that explains the result.</p>
<p>Well, before the writing section was introduced, 1600 was the top score (800M + 800V) So I doubt a 1550 would have been the college readiness benchmark back then. It would’ve been probably closer to a 1000. </p>
<p>I would love to know what the more than 100 colleges were that CB got their benchmark data from.</p>
<p>Scores are down in Texas for SAT but up for ACT. </p>
<p>[SAT</a> scores for Texas high school students drop sharply - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.chron.com/news/article/SAT-scores-for-Texas-high-school-students-drop-2171393.php]SAT”>http://www.chron.com/news/article/SAT-scores-for-Texas-high-school-students-drop-2171393.php)</p>
<p>From article:</p>
<p>Minority students
Texas Education Agency officials pointed to the large increase in the number of minority students in Texas taking the SAT. Black and Hispanic students historically have posted lower scores than white students. Those ethnic groups made up about half of the students who took the SAT in Texas.</p>
<p>Scott also noted that Texas minority students outscored their counterparts across the nation on the math section of the SAT, registering slight gains while minority scores across the nation dropped. Reading and writing results for Texas minority students were down, however.</p>
<p>The decline in scores in Texas and other states came as a surprise to state officials, who noted that scores improved on other tests such as the ACT, the other major college entrance exam in the U.S"</p>
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<p>We, and other schools around us, also had a larger than normal # of students who received fee waivers. Schools literally ran out of them for the June testing date. The current economy has many more parents in that “poor” category than before, but, for our school, that wouldn’t explain a decrease in the overall score.</p>
<p>The fact that more students don’t care all that much about school/academics compared to their phones, facebook, and other distractions might have a little more to do with it. Why remember vocab words when you can always look them up? Why read when you can be doing something more interesting? In the 12 years that I’ve seen students at our school, apathy has risen considerably. It was always there, of course, but now it’s reached a “higher” level of kids. Couple that with poor preparation overall for the kids who do care and you end up with a below average school. We’re only slightly below. There are many schools just like the one I have experience with.</p>
<p>I think people have to remember these benchmarks for college readiness are completely arbitrary. Picking certain ACT or SAT points and saying the people above that line are college ready and those below are not is a bit ridiculous. It’s not binary like that. It’s a spectrum from very poorly prepared to very well prepared for college.</p>
<p>And that’s to say nothing of what the ACT and SAT actually <em>measure</em>, given their general focus on early high school course material.</p>
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Or not. Mean = average, so there was no need for a correction.</p>
<p>That was intended as an attempt at sarcasm. I’ll add an emoticon next time. :)</p>
<p>Since there is some kind of curve applied to a particular exam, does that mean that the great score your kid received would not have been so great given a different year’s crop of students?</p>