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 ...
ACT scores highest since 1991 |
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Posted by ark_girl On News/Activism 08/22/2006 5:42:14 PM CDT · 21 replies · 412+ views CNN.com ^ | 08/22/2006 | AP Average composite scores on the exam, which measures students' readiness for college-level work, rose to 21.1 from 20.9 last year. Both boys and girls posted gains, as did all racial groups except Hispanics, whose scores held steady. ACT scores range from 1 to 36. Officials at the independent, nonprofit ACT said an increase of 0.2 points is significant when considered across a record 1.2 million test-takers nationwide, or 40 percent of graduating seniors. "It takes an enormous amount of change for that large a group to move even a little bit, particularly when that group is changing and we're seeing... |
Whole different test, different questions, completely different content. They never give the same one twice.
And the content is much harder, not easier. Kids today are asked to know much more math than we did -- it's a tech world, folks. I had high scores back in my day, but doubt seriously I could do well today.
Another factor impacting SAT stats is that many more kids are taking it. Remember when you needed a high school diploma to get a good job? For most of today's kids, it's a college diploma, even though reality suggests that not all of us are college material. But they're still urged to take the test, and those low scores pull overall stats down.
Anybody can register for the SAT. I strongly suggest that some of the folks blowing hard on this thread go take it themselves and report their scores back to us.
The NEA has announced that this is all Bush's fault.
And this is after they adjusted up scores a few years back?
In my great grandfather's day...the kids quit school to work the factories at age 9 to 12. Great grandpa married at age 14 and produced 7 children till the old gal died at age 35 during a septic child birth of the 8th child (they lost two as still borns previously). Then grandpa finished high school on account he couldn't work the slaughterhouse with my granduncles. Grandpa married grandma at age 18 (she was 14) and they had five kids. He had a snazzy job at the railroad until the Depression hit. Then he worked odd jobs along with grandma taking in boarders. Then WWII came along and foreign competition was obliterated. The businesses hired all comers and the unions contracted insane wages and promised employment for life...then the jobs went south because of low wages and no unions. Dad worked and married mom when he was in his early 20s. They had five children and four went to college...All five children make more money and have more property than great grandpa ever imagined.
That's a pretty accurate picture of the "dumbing down" of America.
This speaks to a problem with the test rather than a problem with the student.
There's your answer... the new SAT requires students to put together a competent essay. I took the test (twice) this spring, and it wasn't too long, too hard, or too stressful for the student who is given the information in school (ie: basic composition). The test is not the problem. The education system is.
Your tax dollars at work.
This year's ACT did have a writing section added onto it, but it was optional. I also did better on the ACT...
Especially in your case, as your grammer sucks. The apostrophe as you used it in "Indian's" is incorrect in this instance. You should have left it off - it indicates the possessive, not the plural. The plural of Indian is Indians.
If you excluded illegal alien children from the results, what would the outcome be?
I do remember that now. There was an extra fee for the writing test and it came at the end, after all of the other testing. She opted out.
You must have lived in Cleveland. Or possibly Chicago, or even Buffalo........LOL!!!!
I wonder if they are referencing the PSAT which, in effect, lets you take the test twice so that the one that really counts won't be so stressful. I took those tests 30+ years ago.
Is the current trend toward cheating on homework having an effect in this?
Who the hell really cares? SAT's are useless anyway. I failed miserably on mine and 5 years later graduated Cum Laude from a prestigious university. 15 years later (present time) I landed a 6 figure job with lots of time off. Knowing the definition of obscure words doesn't prove success. Many, many people have done just fine without high SAT scores to pat themselves on the back with.
Cheers.
How well do kids used to writing on computers do when they have to use a pencil again? My penmanship was already suffering PC-induced decline in '96, today it'd probably be even worse for such kids.
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