Through the 1990s and early 2000s, the mean scores on the SAT entrance moved steadily upward. Now, during the past five years have been drifting downward.
Why? Unlike the multiple choice sections of the test itself, there is no right answer. But a big factor is the largest and most diverse group of students taking the tests, along with increased score gap between the best performers and those whose numbers are growing faster.
Results released Tuesday shows the high school class of 2009 earned a combined score of 1509 in the three sections of the test, two points last year. The average reading and writing scores dropped a point each, while math scores remained stable.
Experts warn against reading too much into the national average score Sat, given the test taking pool changes over time and can vary widely among States. However, the average rating has dropped nine points since 2006, when the writing section was included for the first test of 2400 and moved to a combined point scale.
Math scores are higher in the last decade, but reading scores four points below its 1999 level.
The College Board, which administers the test, emphasized the increasing diversity of SAT-buyers. Minorities constitute 40 percent of the group last year, and over a quarter of the test takers 1.5 million reported English was not their mother tongue at home.
This is good news in that more students aspire to college, but also weighs on the overall scores because, on average, minority students score lower.
The exception is Asian Americans, whose combined average score rose 13 points to a combined 1623, while scores for whites fell 2 points to 1581. For black students, the scores fell 4 points to 1276. Average scores for two of the three categories of the College Board uses to identify Hispanics also fell, and generally range from 1345 to 1364.
The men also extended their advantage over women by 3 points, men earned in 1523 average compared to 1496 for women. The difference comes mainly from math scores.
Students are informed of their families earned more than $ 200,000 scored 1702, up 26 points from a year ago. That group is relatively small, but the increase could fuel criticism most favorable to the examination students who can afford expensive test preparation tutoring.
The SAT remains the most common entrance examination, although the act has almost reached rivals in popularity. Most colleges accept either, and a growing minority no longer need one.
However, less than half of high school graduates take three hours, 45 minutes SAT, and the group is tilted towards larger scores for our students.
"I just do not think is a good indicator of what is happening nationally," said Tom Loveless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who said that the SAT remains a useful tool when combined with high school Action World, for assessing individual students are prepared for college.
Experts generally pay more attention to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, because, unlike the entrance examinations to the university, which represents the entire student population.
Under testing for students, K-12 black and Hispanics have made great progress than whites since the 1970s. Since 2004, there have been improvements in reading and math at all levels, age or studied, but the difference in performance between minority and white students has remained primarily because whites have done better.
College Board officials do not attribute the growing skills gap directly Sat race, but to factors that correlate with race, as the probability of exposure to a rigorous high school curriculum. Students taking a core curriculum – including four years of English and three each of science, social sciences and history – 44-46 scored more points in each section of the SAT.
"Our data suggest that the gap is widening and expanding academic preparation," said Wayne Camara, College Board vice president of research and development.
White children are more likely to have access to advanced college preparatory subjects that blacks and Hispanics, and success of Asian Americans on the SAT is also probably due in part to pressure to enroll in these courses .
Related posts: