SAT results for 2013 show low rates of college preparedness?
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SAT is standardized test required for admission to most of the universities in the United States. SAT is owned by a private company, the College Board, and it started out in 1962.
Over the years SAT has undergone various changes in its pattern and grade points scale but the main objective has been the same: to assess student’s readiness for college. SAT is taken by over a million students every year who are planning to go to college. Students who achieve high scores on SAT are more likely to get good grade point average in college. A good SAT score denotes more college readiness according to the College Board.
Only 43 percent?
According to a post published at Huffington Post on September 26, 2013 under the same heading as this article, out of the 1.6 million test takers in 2013 only 43 percent met the SAT’s criteria of being ready for college. Statistics show that SAT results have declined over the years and the College Board claims that that high schools should focus more on preparing students for college than they already are.
According to a report released by the College Board the average marks achieved by the test takers in 2013 were the following: 514 in Math Section, 496 in the Critical Reading Section and 488 in the Writing Section. Remember, each of these sections have maximum 800 points.
The College Board benchmark score for supposedly college-ready students is 1550 out of the total 2400 point scale which increases the likelihood of students getting good grades in college according to this company. In 2013 only 43 percent of test takers managed to achieve this goal.
The decline in SAT scores isn’t something new. In fact, scores have been declining since 1972. In 1972 students managed to achieve on average 509 in Math and 530 in Reading which decreased to 506 in Math and 504 in reading in 1995. In 2006 when the writing section appeared in SAT, students scored an average of 497 in this section which decreased to 488 in 2013.
Do the numbers matter?
Do the SAT results really reflect students’ readiness for college? Do the numbers really mean that much? This is something debatable. While the College Board remains persistent in its view that schools need to focus more on preparing students for college because SAT scores are good predictors of students future college performance, there are people who believe that SAT scores are not reliable indicators of future college performance by the students. If that is the case then is there any need to worry about the low scores?
An interesting revelation is that while over all SAT scores have been on the decline for a few years now, the scores by African-American students and other minorities have been improving. In 2013, 15.6 percent of African-American students taking the SAT achieved the College Board benchmark for readiness for college which is above the value for the year before that when it was 14.8 percent. What does that tell us? Can we actually label the high schools low-performance with keeping these statistics in mind?
Costly prep industry a cause?
The realization that SAT prep industry which is worth millions is creating a gap among students can add something new to the debate. The fact that not all students are getting SAT prep materials because of non-availability of money could be a cause behind the decline in scores. Indeed, students who can afford expensive test prep material have been shown to score higher on the SAT. This is in no way fair to the rest of the student population who are at a disadvantage because of money issues. Could the non-availability of free SAT prep materials a contributor to the low scores? We can only speculate.
Can the new steps improve scores?
Recently, The College Board which is the company that owns the SAT has announced that a new SAT is coming your way in the spring of 2016. The new SAT will return back to the good old 1600 points scale and the Writing Section (which was added after 2005) will become optional and will be graded separately. The College Board is also planning to focus more on the curriculum that is taught in schools asking students to focus more on day-to-day schooling. The new SAT will be 3 hours long excluding the Writing Section which will be given an extra 50 minutes.
A great step which will be taken in near future by the College Board is making SAT prep materials available for free. The College Board is collaborating with Khan Academy, a well-known free resource for education to make this happen. This step is being taken to abolish the gap that has appeared over the years between the students who can spend lots on their prep materials and those who can not.
These steps could improve the over all score average or may be take it further down. We’ll find out soon enough. If costly prep is a cause behind the decline then making the material freely available should be able to rectify the problem. Even if the scores don’t rise come 2016, this step is definitely a step in the right direction.
Low score not good.
Regardless of your belief about whether SAT score is a good predictor of future college performance or college readiness, a low score can never be considered good. Although African-American students have shown improvement, the over all scores have gone downhill. It should be a cause for worry for high school students and their administration. They should try to find the root cause for the decline in scores and work to improve future SAT performance.