This Year's SAT Scores Are Out, and They're Grim

[Cincinnatus]

Of the 1.66 million high school students in the class of 2013 who took the SAT, only 43 percent were academically prepared for college-level work, according to this year’s SAT Report on College & Career Readiness. For the fifth year in a row, fewer than half of SAT-takers received scores that qualified them as “college-ready.”

The College Board considers a score of 1550 to be the “College and Career Readiness Benchmark.” Students who meet the benchmark are more likely to enroll in a four-year college, more likely to earn a GPA of a B- or higher their freshman year, and more likely to complete their degree.

“While some might see stagnant scores as no news, the College Board considers them a call to action. These scores can and must change — and the College Board feels a sense of responsibility to help make that happen,” the report said.

I fully agree the scores "can and must change". So I guess we have to get rid of the teacher's unions and privatize education. That oughta do it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/this-years-sat-scores-are-out-and-theyre-grim/279999/

[Atomic Cow]

I hated the SAT, ACT, and GRE.  I suck at standardized tests, but always do well academically.  A good friend of mine was the opposite.  She graduated A&M with a 4.0 and with university honors, but did so poorly on the LSAT that she had to take it twice and barely got into any law school at all.  Her sister barely got out of A&M with a 2.0, but scored almost perfect on her SAT and got a 1560 on her GRE.

[Oceander]

I hated the SAT, ACT, and GRE.  I suck at standardized tests, but always do well academically.  A good friend of mine was the opposite.  She graduated A&M with a 4.0 and with university honors, but did so poorly on the LSAT that she had to take it twice and barely got into any law school at all.  Her sister barely got out of A&M with a 2.0, but scored almost perfect on her SAT and got a 1560 on her GRE.

There are two big problems with multiple-choice tests like the SAT and LSAT:  (1) the time pressure gives some people anxiety or panic attacks that make it difficult for them to answer questions they really do know the answers to, and (2) the test format is susceptible to various test-taking techniques that have nothing to do with the actual content of the question.

As an example of the former, I had a friend in high school who was very smart - he was one of the inaugural students at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Northern Virginia - but had terrible test anxiety.  His SAT scores were so abysmal that even with his high school GPA and recommendations from teachers he was rejected by a lot of universities and was finally accepted at Monmouth College in NJ (which is now Monmouth University).  Monmouth College was much lower-ranked back in the late 80s than it is now.  In other words, getting in wasn't particularly challenging.  Over the Summer my friend went to the campus for basic orientation and to take placement exams.  The night before his exams he got trashed - polluted, obliterated, whatever your favorite term is - and had the beginning of a nasty hangover when he sat the exams.  He aced all of those exams, not only because he was smart and knew all the material, but because he was too hung over to get anxious about the tests.  I wouldn't recommend doing this on a regular basis as a way of dealing with test anxiety, but it does illustrate how debilitating test anxiety can be.

As an example of the latter, one of my favorite techniques on multiple choice tests is to start with the answer options first, and then see how many of them I can disqualify just by finding some point in the question material that's inconsistent.  Not only does it make more efficient use of time, it also does not require one to read the entire question or to even grasp the entire point of the question.  Obviously there are questions on which this technique does not work well, but there are plenty of questions on which it does work, and that allows one to get the right answer to a question without actually knowing what the question was in the first place.  This technique wouldn't make the difference between acing and failing the test, but it can improve one's scores by several percentage points, which can make the difference between being accepted or rejected at many colleges and universities.

[NavyCanDo]

It's going to get a whole lot worse by the time the Common Core Elementary Kids get to high school.   They are pushing them through math way to quick, not allowing them to master one level before pushing them to another. My son who is  in 6th grade is a perfect example. This year they are doing Algebra out of a college prep math book that would have been taught to 8th graders back when I went to school, and only to kids who mastered basic bath. I took basic math all the way to 9th grade myself. The school doesn't seem to care that he was below a passing math score at the end of last year.

And spelling?   They test them for it but they don't teach it.   He spells like a 3rd grader. Maybe worse.

Here are actual ways he spelled words on a recent spelling test that came home.   He got 5 of 26 correct. Again this is 6th Grade...

Women - wimmen
history - histery
their - thaer
any one - eny one
who's - hews

And there is no history in the curriculum. This I teach him at home using highly recommended home schooling history books, which I would do anyway. Maybe it's best they don't pollute his mind with their history.

As a father that is deeply concerned, and I am in deep prayer over what to do.  The school district is horrible, but private school and homeschooling are not a realistic option for us right now.

[happyg]

If a child isn't  exposed to words, how can a child spell them? My oldest granddaughter spelled the same way. Everyone did everything to help her, even bribing her with money,  but she got mad and frustrated, and didn't really care. I told her parents to be patient, that things would kick in all of a sudden, and they did. This year, her sophomore year, she has 4 A's and 1 B. She spells fine. Her mother cried when she saw her grades. Sometimes, it takes kids  a long time to grasp something, but when the finally do, they start off running.

[NavyCanDo]

eye hope yu ar korrect happyg and he lurns to spel sune.

[happyg]

eye hope yu ar korrect happyg and he lurns to spel sune.

eye hoope so two! Perhaps he's not seeing the words as we do? How are his eyes? My son had double vision that wasn't diagnosed until late.  He still has it, but is used to it. He would never wear those ugly glasses or patches, and said it didn't bother him.

[mountaineer]

The College Board considers a score of 1550 to be the “College and Career Readiness Benchmark.”

What's a "perfect" score these days? It used to be 1600, but certainly appears to be higher now!

Many high school graduates can not read, write or do basic math. Grammar and spelling escape them.  At the school where Mr. M is an administrator, at least half of the incoming freshmen require remedial coursework. Granted, it's not a selective school - just a relatively small state college - but that's still a damning indictment of the government school system, at least in our state.