Drop in SAT scores biggest in 31 years

AP ^ | 8/29/06 | Justin Pope

[RushCrush]

The high school class of 2006 recorded the sharpest drop in SAT scores in 31 years, a decline that the exam's owner, the College Board, said was partly due to some students taking the newly lengthened test only once instead of twice.

Fatigue wasn't to blame, the College Board insisted, even though this year's class was the first to take a new version of the exam which added an essay. It now takes an average of three hours and 45 minutes to complete the test, not counting breaks, up from three hours previously.

The results come several months after numerous colleges reported surprisingly low SAT scores for this year's incoming college freshmen. The nonprofit College Board, which had said scores would be down this year, released figures Tuesday showing combined critical reading and math skills fell seven points on average to 1021.

[1Old Pro]

I agree that governemtn schools are failures and we should adapt new means to educate. We start with competition, we then dismantle the union, we then pay for merit/performance.

[G8 Diplomat]

This was just announced at my school today. This proves either that the College Board's new test isn't working or that students just don't care enough to work hard anymore...or maybe both. However, I think the writing section should be scrapped. Colleges already get to see how you write in you application essay, so why do they need to see your score on a 25-minute timed essay draft? After all, in the real world, you have more than 25 minutes to write essays and reports, and they are not just an unedited spewing of the first ideas that come to your mind like on the SAT.

[Antoninus]

And this is AFTER they made the SAT easier? Good gravy!

Homeschooling bump!

[Doctor Stochastic]

When I took the SAT back in the mid-70's, I had to walk to the test site, uphill, in both directions, during a blizzard the third week of May.

My neighbors did that too, except that they had to wear barbed wire shoes (just to show that they could afford barbed wire and the rest of us couldn't.)

[fatnotlazy]

I agree that government schools are failures and we should adapt new means to educate. We start with competition, we then dismantle the union, we then pay for merit/performance.

***

The merit/performance thing was proposed here where I live, and of course, it was rejected...thanks to the powerful teachers unions.

The problem is that we have all these factions (parents, teachers, administrators, government functionaries, so-called "activists" and "experts"), each with their own agendas...none of which have anything to do with actually educating our children.

[Blessed]

> This proves either that the College Board's new test isn't working or that students just don't care enough to work hard anymore...or maybe both<

Not all colleges require essays especially large Universities.

Most Colleges are continuing to base admissions on just the verbal and math parts until the new essay section has all its bugs ironed out and it has predictive validity.

[G8 Diplomat]

Actually most public universities do require application essays, and although colleges currently only care about the math and verbal, starting in 2007, they will start looking at the writing section as well.

[BohDaThone]

One reason for a timed essay on the SAT is that they know reasonably well that YOU DID IT YOURSELF -- no help from parents, "admission counselors," paid prep aides, etc. Second, in real life, as well as on College exams, you frequently have to think, write and produce a piece of writing on deadline. It's not the only thing, but most folks who can't produce a reasonable piece of writing in 30 minutes aren't going to give you Paradise Lost if you give them all year!

[OnRightOnLeftCoast]

"They were treating me like just another "product" of the education system, just another number. They want worker bees [my emphasis]. Push a button. Pull a lever. Get just enough 'education' to learn how to be compliant, happy little 21st Century workers who don't ask any questions and keep their noses to the grindstone. I thought, 'surely, not my school'. I was wrong."

Ashley Anderson, 16 years old
NewsWithViews.com
9-16-03

[G8 Diplomat]

...most folks who can't produce a reasonable piece of writing in 30 minutes aren't going to give you Paradise Lost if you give them all year!

The topics they give on the SAT are not simple things. They require time to think of a side to take and organize your ideas to support or refute it and make sure they are solid, and to do a decent job it does take more than 25 minutes. I know--I've TAKEN the new SAT. 25 minutes was a bit of a rush.

[G8 Diplomat]

Second, in real life, as well as on College exams, you frequently have to think, write and produce a piece of writing on deadline.

Not a 25-minute deadline, I'll bet.

[G8 Diplomat]

And this is AFTER they made the SAT easier? Good gravy!

Actually, they made the SAT harder. They added a third section and included Algebra 2 material as well.