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SAT
Scores Suffer Biggest Drop In 30 Years |
Posted
08.30.06
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The SAT scores of the class of 2006 dropped significantly from
the previous year, raising questions about the test's new format
and its rising cost.
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 Combined
critical reading and math skills fell 7 points on average to 1,021,
according to the nonprofit College Board, which runs the test.
The average critical reading score fell from 508 to 503, while
math dropped from 520 to 518. The change may seem small, but it's
the largest decline for verbal since 1975 and for math since 1978.
On the new SAT writing section, the class scored 497 on average,
with girls scoring 11 points higher than boys. Boys performed
slightly better on math and critical reading.
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Test fatigue? |
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Initially, educators wondered if students were tiring out by
the end of the marathon exam. The new test takes an average of
three hours and 45 minutes to complete, not counting breaks, up
from three hours.
But fatigue from the longer time period was not to blame, according
to the College Board. Analysis of 700,000 critical reading and
math exams taken in the spring and fall of 2005 showed students
were performing about the same early and late in the exam.
 Instead,
the College Board said the drop was due to fewer students taking
the exam a second time, which typically boosts scores 30 points.
One reason could be that the price of the test has risen from
$28 to $41, though fees are sometimes waived. Another reason could
be that students were afraid to take the new test again, according
the College Board.
Testing experts say the change in exams may have made students
nervous and affected student performance.
"When a new test is introduced, students usually vary their
test-taking behavior in a variety of ways and this affects scores,"
College Board President Gaston Caperton said in a news release.
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Colleges
concerned by lower scores |
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Earlier in the year, colleges expressed concern about the lower
SAT scores for the class of 2006.
"When you don't know whether it's your observed facts or
your instruments, you're really out there on your own,'' Barmak
Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars
and Admissions Officers told Bloomberg News.
The College Board had assured universities that while revising
and shortening the math and verbal sections to make room for the
new writing section, they would maintain the same scale, Nassirian
said. The decline, in addition to last year's scoring errors on
over 4,000 tests due to moisture at the processing center, raises
serious questions, he said.
"The burden, frankly, is on [the College Board] to establish
that the instrument is rock-solid, and that what they're measuring
is not internal noise to the test,'' Nassirian said.
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SAT vs. ACT |
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 First
administered in 1926, the SAT is the nation's most popular standardized
college admissions test.
However, more and more students are taking the rival ACT, which
generally focuses on material covered in high school classes as
opposed to the SAT's focus on general ability.
Ironically, ACT scores for the class of 2006 were up over a point
this year -- to 21.1 out of 36 points -- the biggest increase
in 20 years.
While the SAT has traditionally dominated the East Coast and
West Coast for decades, the ACT is taken by students in the Midwest
and parts of the South, though most colleges accept scores from
either test.
In recent years, students in traditional SAT states like Connecticut
and New Jersey appear to be taking both exams to try to improve
their applications to selective colleges.
About 1.5 million of this year's 3 million high school graduates
took the SAT. About 1.2 million took the ACT.
--Compiled
by Leah Clapman for NewsHour Extra
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