Is this fair? National Merit qualifying scores differ by state

Washington Post ^ | February 11, 2010 | Valerie Strauss

[reaganaut1]

If you live in West Virginia, your child needs to score at least 203 on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is used to screen for candidates for the National Merit Scholarship program. But if you live in Virginia, that score has to be at least 218, as it is in New York. The cutoff score for Washington D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey is 221.

In fact, the cutoff scores vary in each state, and they vary from year to year. Some college admissions counselors think this is patently unfair, and that a national scholarship program should use the same criteria for everyone. In effect, they say, the program purports to take the very top high school students, or, rather, the top-scoring PSAT students but actually doesn't; students with higher scores can be exempted while others with lower scores in another state can qualify. . The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which administers the scholarship program, doesn’t see it that way. The program's officials see it as an issue of state equity.

A spokesman for the corporation, Eileen Artemakis, explained it this way:

“We want to ensure that we recognize outstanding students from all parts of the United States in the talent pool for the National Merit Program,” she said. “We designate students on a state representational basis, which means that the number [of student semifinalists] named in each state is proportional to its percentage of the national total of graduating high school seniors. So the scores will vary from state to state as well as from year to year because of that.”

The PSAT is usually taken in the fall of high school junior year. The scholarship website says that of the 1.5 million entrants, about 50,000 with the highest PSAT/NHMSQT Selection Index scores [...] qualify.

[reaganaut1]

It's only fair that blue states and regions like Washington D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey get reamed by this policy, since Democrats exalt "diversity", but unfortunately I live in MA.

It's my impression that the cutoff scores are not highly correlated with the average scores on tests like the NAEP. For example, average educational achievement in D.C. is probably close to the lowest in the country, but apparently there are enough kids, I assume mostly white and Asian, who are living in a different educational universe in D.C.

[I still care]

Years! ago, when I won my National Merit Scholarship on Long Island, the cutoff I remember was a specific number. I was surprised by a call later in the day that a relative my age in Brooklyn had also won a scholarship.

Surprised, I say, because when I was told his score, it was quite below mine. In fact, with that score on Long Island I would not have qualified for a scholarship. I was later told that because he lived in Brooklyn, the level was quite a bit lower.

For all who think this unfair, I can tell you many years later that this relative lives in a multi-million dollar mansion, and I’ve never come close to that! So it’s quite arbitrary, anyway, as to future success.

[JimVT]

It’s like so much else in the Education system where “teacher knows best”.

In my 1952 high school graduating class in RI
14 per cent of the seniors were named to the RI Honor Roll Society and they got there by maintaining a “B” or + average for the entire 3 years.

The local Gannett rag now publishes the semester “Honor Rolls” and more than 50 per cent of the kids are on it.

I’ve interviewed a number of them for jobs and many are totally in the dark about how under-educated they are.

With the Armed Services on a “volunteer” basis, most of the kids couldn’t even enlist!

[JimVT]

It’s like so much else in the Education system where “teacher knows best”.

In my 1952 high school graduating class in RI
14 per cent of the seniors were named to the RI Honor Roll Society and they got there by maintaining a “B” or + average for the entire 3 years.

The local Gannett rag now publishes the semester “Honor Rolls” and more than 50 per cent of the kids are on it.

I’ve interviewed a number of them for jobs and many are totally in the dark about how under-educated they are.

With the Armed Services on a “volunteer” basis, most of the kids couldn’t even enlist!

[JimVT]

sorry about the dupe.....always been too quick on the trigger!

[Roamin53]

I think awarding excellence based on the school system that the student had to work with is actually fairer than it sounds. And I’m one of those who criticizes these systems thataward everyone passing grades etc., etc.

[ari-freedom]

it’s another symptom of the lack of strong national educational standards.

[drjulie]

Interesting article. We live in Iowa. In 2000, my daughter was very close but did not qualify. That year she would have qualified if we lived 15 miles further south (in Missouri). It seemed a bit unfair at the time.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Targeted has turned into the new F word.

[TankerKC]

State	Cut-off Score
Washington D.C.	221
Maryland	221
Massachusetts	221
New Jersey	221
Delaware	219
California	218
Connecticut	218
New York	218
Virginia	218
Rhode Island	217
Washington	217
Texas	216
Minnesota	215
Georgia	214
Hawaii	214
Illinois	214
North Carolina	214
Pennsylvania	214
Colorado	213
Maine	213
New Hampshire	213
Oregon	213
Tennessee	213
Vermont	213
Alaska	211
Florida	211
Indiana	211
Kansas	211
Missouri	211
Ohio	211
South Carolina	211
Arizona	210
Idaho	209
Iowa	209
Kentucky	209
Michigan	209
New Mexico	208
Louisiana	207
Oklahoma	207
Wisconsin	207
Nebraska	206
Utah	206
South Dakota	205
Montana	204
Arkansas	203
Mississippi	203
West Virginia	203
Nevada	202
North Dakota	202
Wyoming	201

[PeanutbutterandJellybean]

I’m not understanding how many high school seniors graduate, will determine the score on the test?

Is it more a case of the teachers in those regions aren’t teaching the curriculum, so the students aren’t up to par?

[originalbuckeye]

In 2005, my son qualified as a Semifinalist. He chose to go to a Military Academy so it was a moot point. He was rejected by Harvard and Yale but a minority student from his class, well below him in SAT score and not a National Merit Semifinalist, got into every school to which he applied. Our education system is broken. California had Social Promotion in the grade schools. This is one of the huge problems we need to address.

[Myrddin]

He was rejected by Harvard and Yale but a minority student from his class, well below him in SAT score and not a National Merit Semifinalist, got into every school to which he applied. Our education system is broken.

Affirmative action is alive and well. It has an impact on admissions. Once you get into the classroom, the underqualified candidates get dropped into the meat grinder. At UCSD, there was a 5% reservation for "affirmative action" admissions. When the results were examined, 85% dropped out before graduation. Only 2% were admitted to grad school after graduation. To achieve that 5% reservation, there were may well qualified students turned away.

[9YearLurker]

Jeesh—I was a NM scholar decades ago, does anyone know how long this has been going on?

And though I know it’s a rhetorical question, still the answer is no, of course it’s not fair!

[Freee-dame]

I think it is the same top percentage (0.5%?, 1.5%? )of all tests taken in each state. Some states have far more high scorers than other states. Some states don’t have that many students who take the PSAT because most take the ACT instead of the SAT. It has been done this way since at least the late 50’s when I took the PSAT test.

[EDINVA]

The NMSQT puts itself out as “MERIT” test, not ‘adjusted merit’ or ‘comparative merit,’ but merit. We are led to believe the qualifiers are the top 1% of students nationwide, but that’s not how this shakes down. What would be wrong with having a different number of qualifiers in each state from year to year, with one standard cutoff score nationwide?

There are likely thousands of students in that gap between WV’s 203 and MD’s 221. With a 203 in MD, what percentile does the student fall into? And how fair is THAT to the MD student with a 210 who doesn’t qualify in MD but would in WV? That 210 student in MD is deprived of several scholarship opportunities only because of where s/he lives.

It’s nothing more than ‘geographic diversity.’ We see it in VA, where students from Northern VA, who tend to score higher on most tests, have to compete against each other, then compete against others in less well-educated parts of the state. Indeed, if I am not mistaken half of VA’s Merit finalists are from one school in Northern Virginia, unless that’s been adjusted to achieve more diversity of outcomes.

Our state universities grant admission by the same standard. They will admit a high achieving (GPA) student from a lesser school before a reasonably well achieving (but not top of class) student in No VA.

The problem arises when they arrive on campus. All of a sudden, the kid who was top of his/her class at the lesser school is unable to compete with the No VA kid who’s been in a competitive environment all his/her student life. In the meanwhile, s/he has taken the admission/seat of a more qualified collegiate scholar. Oh, well, at least we have achieved geographic diversity!

[EDINVA]

I’m a little surprised at Iowa’s low cutoff, since their SAT’s are always at the top for the USA.

[TankerKC]

I’m a little surprised at Iowa’s low cutoff, since their SAT’s are always at the top for the USA.

It looks to me like population density may be a part of how they set the cutoff scores.

[EDINVA]

Probably some convoluted figuring so we common folk can’t figure it out. Not only is IA one of the highest nationally on SAT’s, but DC is lowest .. and yet DC is among the highest cut offs on the Merit qualifying.

That may have to do with WHO takes the tests. In DC you have those prestigious private schools where the POTUS, Senators and power brokers send their darlings, and then there’s the less than stellar public schools. So if the latter aren’t taking the tests in large numbers, it would hike the scores averages. Just very strange.

[reaganaut1]

More color on this story: National Merit Scholarship Bullies . The National Merit Scholarship Corporation had their lawyer threaten someone who posted the cut-off scores online.