This Year's SAT Scores Are Out, and They're Grim

The Atlantic ^ | SEP 26 2013 | JULIA RYAN

[Amagi]

I believe SAT scores peaked in 1963.
Looks like it's time once again to artificial raise SAT scores across the board to hide the FACT that the quality of US education is in freefall.
Yet the cost of education necessarily skyrockets.
Notice how EVERYTHING the left gets its tentacles into gets destroyed, but costs so much more.
God Save the Republic.

[BfloGuy]

Fewer than half of the 2013 graduating seniors who took the test got "college-ready" scores.

OK. Then they're not ready. The statistic by itself is meaningless.

Now, I'm first in line when it comes to criticizing American public education, but there is no reason to think that everyone can or should be college material. Perhaps, this is a question of too many taking the test.

[SaraJohnson]

There is no changing this. It’s going to get much worse with the population coming up. They will never be able to replace nor maintain the economy and lifestyle of the Boomers. Liberals wanted a non-western third world peasant population begging for a bowl of cereal and they are going to have one.

[Chode]

but i bet the little darlings all score 2400 in self esteem...

[VerySadAmerican]

The quality of education has been going down, for all races, ever since the schools were integrated. A great big pink elephant is in every classroom but no one will admit they can see it.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I scored 1340 when I took it right before my senior year (1985). That put me in the 95th percentile nationwide, and I think I had the highest SAT score in my graduating class.

Today, that and $2 will get me a cup of coffee. :)

[VerySadAmerican]

Know what’s really scary? This is where we get our military recruits.

[reed13k]

had my girls start taking the ACT in 6th grade through NUMATS. No the scores weren’t great, but it got them oriented toward what it takes to just do the exam. Both scored 18 the first go round. Last year my oldest as a sophmore scored 26. Which is considered above college ready.

[Calvin Locke]

I remember a book on culture and society from the 1980s entitled "Class".

The author, a British Lit prof at Rutgers, iirc, wrote that the decline of literacy started when "IN" disappeared from "INFLAMMABLE" on gasoline tankers.

That must have been in the mid-1960s.

[reed13k]

I did similar back then, but they’ve modified the test instead of 2 800 pt sections Math and English there are now 3 sections for a higher total. So the equivalent score of 1000 then is now equivalent to around 1500

[bravo whiskey]

interesting graph only whites and asians have scores in the 500s. didn’t clintoon arbitrarily add points to everyone’s SAT.

[JediJones]

We’ll definitely have to reconfigure the questions until “equal outcomes” are produced for all races. I suggest adding some questions about the origins of Kwanzaa and Snoop Doggy Dogg lyrics.

[JediJones]

EVERYONE'S a winner!

[Undecided 2012]

The reason they added the writing section is because it is extremely subjectively graded. If you write as a leftist lib you’ll get 800 plus a watered down version of the reading and math we all used to take.
These folks couldn’t figure out change from a $10 bill.

[JediJones]

Even with a dumbed-down SAT (the test has changed a lot in the last 10 years), expect to see little improvement in SAT scores unless we get a huge increase in Asian students.

I'd be all for allowing more of them to immigrate here. But instead our government wants to fill all available slots with illegals from south of the border whose countries don't have such a good academic track record.

[RckyRaCoCo]

"...mmm mmm mmm, Barack(Insane)Obama..."

I'm sure they learned everything they were supposed to...

[Southack]

You scored 1340 out of 1600.

That was back then.

Today, they are scoring 1300 out of 2400.

[dforest]

Truth is, very little time is spent on learning anything. School now is all indoctrination and social engineering.

These kids really are getting no education. The young ones will be totally unable to advance society in any meaningful way.

They won’t need to have any education. The government will take care of them.

How sad.

[JediJones]

An analysis of the data by the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (a group that has long been critical of the SAT) found that since 2006, the combined Asian average score is up by 45 points, while the average scores of all other groups are down -- by between 6 and 28 points.

How do we explain that? Ironically though, for how smart asians are supposed to be, they still vote Democrat, even though Democrat affirmative action policies do more to keep them out of college than any other group. If not for affirmative action, I think some studies have said most colleges would be heavily if not majority asian.

[RFEngineer]

“My daughter is a freshman in High School and I want to get her into an SAT prep course this summer, it’s never too early.”

If you are starting early with her make sure she takes rigorous classes. Shoot for calculus, physics, AP courses all around. That will prepare her with knowledge and understanding and will do more than any ‘prep’ course could.

Remember most prep courses are more about “how to take the test” not about increasing knowledge and proficiency.