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According to a recent report by the College Board, the organization that owns and administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test taken by high school students, the average American SAT score is falling. The average reading score dropped three points to 497. The average writing score dropped two points to 489. The average math score dropped one point to 514. Some critics think this is a problem. They are, however, very wrong.
Douglas McIntyre at Daily Finance screams “SAT Scores Fall Nationwide: A Harbinger of U.S. Economic Decline.” The decline in SAT scores, McIntyre writes, is “yet another data point in the suggesting that America is falling behind much of the rest of the world in terms of educational attainment.”
Carla Rivera at the Los Angeles Times writes that,
The high school graduating class of 2011 lost ground on every measure of the SAT exam, with reading scores nationally the lowest on record, prompting concern about whether students are being adequately prepared for college, officials said Wednesday.
Really, who are those officials? Because that concern would be inappropriate. SAT scores are supposed to decline. The more high school students take them, the lower the scores go.
Even the Washington Post, which put “Average SAT scores down for high school class of 2011 as test-taking pool expands” in the headline, still fell into this trap, warning that “the relatively poor performance on the SATs could raise questions whether reading and writing instruction need even more emphasis to accommodate the country’s changing demographics.”
What does that even mean?
The SAT was first introduced to American schools in 1901. Since then the number of students taking the test has increased immensely. Today students from virtually every high school in America take the college placement examination.
Because the SAT became required for college admissions, and high schools started to push all students to higher education, that meant that many students from less rigorous high schools took the test. By 1994 the average verbal score was 428. The average Math score was 478. And so in 1995 the College Board “recentered’ the test; the organization changed the scoring system so that average new score was again closer to 500.
The SAT scores have always declined, every year. And they always will. They’re not meant to be an indication of the intelligence of American students, or the quality of American public high schools. The SAT is vaguely an intelligence test but the way the test is administered about half of American students score above 500 on each section. About half score below.
SAT decline is a sign of the success of the College Board’s marketing efforts, not of the failure of the U.S> educational system. The only way to stop this decline would be but fewer students taking the test, not better education.
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fever on September 16, 2011 10:24 AM:
Perhaps your conclusion is correct but this report is one of many that suggest the U.S. educational system is a failure. So sure, toss this report out, do you really think the U.S. educational system is succeeding?
BGinCHI on September 16, 2011 6:17 PM:
fever, please define "success" in this context.
When you are finished with that, please describe how, with per-student funding diminishing in the US over the last several decades, this nation should expect education to improve.
No study is going to absolutely prove one way or the other that education is doing its job or not (so broad a category, spread out over such a huge population, with countless variables). But, given the shift in resources away from education, our lack of investment in it and general disrespect for the teaching profession, I'd say it's doing remarkably well.
In fact, studies consistently show that people like the school their kids attend, but then say that "other schools" are not performing.
Sandra in VA on September 16, 2011 7:50 PM:
The SAT is not an intelligence test. It is designed to predict how well a student will do in the freshman year of college. It's only one indicator and certainly not a perfect one at that
Fever on September 17, 2011 5:49 PM:
I’d love to see the source that shows per pupil spending has decreased. Below is a source that shows per pupil spending on public education is comparable to per pupil spending for private education. I would define success as being at least competitive with private education based on the fact it costs around the same. If given the option to attend a top private school or go through the public education system few parents would choose the latter. Most really view this debate as a waste of time because we all know, except teachers who generally fight to keep the status quo, that public education is a joke. This SAT story is just one more arrow in our quiver of arguments.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11432
dsimon on September 18, 2011 9:54 AM:
fever: "This SAT story is just one more arrow in our quiver of arguments."
Then you folks must not know how to form a good argument. As noted, the SAT is not a test designed to evaluate the totality of education in this country. The student population taking the test is not a constant, making it impossible to draw valid year-to-year comparisons. The increasing proportion of students taking the test are inevitably going to come from less-achieving strata (those who are most likely college-bound are already taking the test), so average scores will inevitably decline. (And, by the way, private school students are taking the test too.)
You can demagogue, but it won't change the statistical and demographic realities that explain what's going on with SAT scores. A real discussion would to have to use more valid data--not that that would excuse invalid reliance on the SAT.