Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: SAT Scores Suffer Biggest Drop in 30 Years, 08/30/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec06/sat_8-30.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What are standardized tests?

2. What do standardized tests measure and why might they be important?

3. How has the SAT changed in recent years?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. How much did the SAT scores for math and critical reading drop this year?

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.

2. List three theories why students might have done worse on this year's test.

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.

3. How have colleges reacted to this year's SAT scores?

Earlier in the year, colleges expressed concern about the lower SAT scores for the class of 2006.

4. What problem did the SAT have last year?

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.

5. What is the main difference between the SAT and the ACT?

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.

6. How many students took the SAT least year? How many took the ACT?

About 1.5 million of this year's 3 million high school graduates took the SAT. About 1.2 million took the ACT.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What are some criticisms of the SAT? Do you agree or disagree with the criticisms?

2. If you were an admissions officer at a college, how much weight would you give SAT scores? If your goal was to accept students who would do well at your school, what factors would you consider? Rank your criteria from the most important to the least important.

3. Conduct a poll at your school to find out how much emphasis students and parents put on tests like the SAT. Do you think there is too much emphasis, too little, or the right amount?

Write a 500-800 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.