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<p>The test-givers do collect some data of this kind, by self-report of the students. The composition of the test-taking group DOES change from year to year, which is why year-to-year mean score comparisons need to be done cautiously.</p>
<p>“I like some of the stats such as 1930 = the 90th percentile for college bound seniors and the average score for kids in the top 10% of their classes (even if it’s a sligtly inflated 10%). is under 1800.”</p>
<p>I noticed this too, which goes to show how inflated grades are. It also reaffirms the necessity of standardized testing. Schools and teachers may be able to give out As, but they can’t give out 2400s.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how grade inflation figures in to this. Even in high schools with rampant grade inflation, there’s still the same # of kids in the top 10%.</p>
<p>D goes to an average public school. A kid or two or, in a great year, three from a class of 150 gets into an Ivy or similar school, but most go to State U. Her friends, who are mostly top 10%-ers, have scores (to the extent that the kids are sharing) hovering around the 1800-2000 range, with a handful of stars well above that, of course. That’s the reality all over America; it’s just not the picture you get if you spend too much time on CC.</p>
<p>marite - I work in a hospital in MA and see mostly infants and toddlers for patients. I cannot quote statistics but I can assure you that my population has changed dramatically over the past 10 years from mostly non-immigrant families and little ones to 70% or more immigrant families. I spend a lot of time waiting for, and using, interpreters, who are requested for more than 50% of my patients now. While this actually makes my position far more interesting and challenging, the range of languages is astonishing. I no longer find it unusual to have the Somali interpreter waiting for the Khmer interpreter to be through. Many of these new U.S. citizens are accompanied by their older siblings who are in our local schools. A friend who teaches 7th grade science tells me that there are over 30 different languages spoken in her middle school. I think MA has had a tremendous change in ESL residents and surely it must be influencing these results. </p>
<p>OTOH, I agree with the impact of MCAS. Teachers are teaching to the MCAS test as it is a supposedly a measure of the community’s effectiveness (the teacher’s effectiveness). But the content does not necessarily correlate well with what is measured on SATs.</p>
<p>Some schools seem to figure a way to get 50% of the class into the top 10%. Some UCs have over 90% top 10% and average SATs in the 1000-1100 range. Something does not compute.</p>