Posted on 08/29/2006 8:32:31 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I bet if we outsource the SAT to students in India we could get higher scores...:)
What a crock. I wish I could have taken a few of my college tests twice and then counted the higher scores. Mush headed, liberal academia...all show and no substance.
In other news, spending per student has hit 31 year highs.
Therefore spending is invversely related to test scores so enough of the we need more money for the "kids" cries from the unions.
Looks like they may need to another dumbdown adjustment again pretty soon.
Add 50 points to everyone's score and then pat ourselves on the back for our outstanding educational system.
Is this the result of the "No Child Left Behind" policy?
Even better: China. Lower labor costs, higher scores. See your tagline.
Of course we would... considering how Indian's behave with interview questions
(if you don't know, it is common for Indian's to pass interview questions to headhunters after they take an interview. The headhunter's will then 'prep' the next candidate with the 'study materials.')
Looks like a race to the bottom, what with so many kids trying to act ghetto-maxed. One way to prove your street cred is to be dumb on tests. That'll show the Man.
/sarc
Well, it certainly sounds like it is time to boost the baseline another 100 points so today's children do not lose their self-esteem. Certainly, its not time to actually improve schools through vouchers, etc.
Education ping (if you know someone who can determine the drop in SAT scores)
IIRC, most savvy students prefer ACT tests and ignore SAT tests altogether.
I wonder if the drop is due, in large measure, to the pool of quality students tested rather than the overall pool of US students.
Maybe we could find an educator to comment?
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.
As long as I can remember, you have always been able to retake the SAT.
More focus on academics is needed bottom line.
This is a silly story.
Of course the scores are lower. They've changed the test dramatically, made it much longer and more difficult. It is totally unfair to compare it with scores from prior years.
A few years ago -- late 90's -- SAT "re-centered" the scoring scale. No difference in test content, just a different way of reporting scores. An old 1100 became a 1200, etc. It was a statistical correction, but people tried to compare old scores with new ones then, too.
Hogwash. It's a whole new test this year, completely incomparable with years past.
As for taking the test more than once, that, too, has been common practice for years. Generally, kids take it first as high school juniors to acquaint themselves with the structure, content, and length of the exam, then "for real" as high school seniors. Difference in scores is usually minimal. All of my sons did that, and we're talking maybe 20 points difference between the tests, which could be attributed to a couple of good guesses or maybe just another year of maturity.
This doesn't reflect badly on anybody. Quit the mullygrumping and move on.
The new SAT has essays.
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