Last week鈥檚 announcement that composite SAT scores dipped for the second year in a row since the college-entrance exam鈥檚 overhaul in 2005 has sparked debate over the significance, if any, of such short-term declines.
Although was slight in percentage terms, average performance among the 1.49 million 2007 graduates who took the closely watched 81-year-old exam fell on all three sections of the test.
On a scale of 200 to 800 points, the average scores dropped 1 point on the critical-reading section, to 502; 3 points in mathematics, to 515; and 3 points, to 494, on the writing section, now in its second year.
鈥淚 would say, 鈥楬mm, it鈥檚 a warning sign,鈥� 鈥� said Daniel M. Koretz, a professor of education at Harvard University鈥檚 graduate school of education, who downplayed the importance of year-to-year fluctuations in the low single digits. 鈥淚f we keep getting these kinds of declines, then that鈥檚 something we鈥檝e got to start worrying about.鈥�
College Board officials Gaston Caperton, center, and Laurence Bunin, left, listen as board research director Wayne J. Camara discusses the scores of this year鈥檚 college freshmen.
鈥擟hristopher Powers/澳门跑狗论坛
Laurence Bunin, the general manager of the SAT program at the New York City-based College Board, the test鈥檚 sponsor, said at the Aug. 28 press conference here that 鈥渢he scores 鈥� are really in an expected range.鈥� The Educational Testing Service, of Princeton, N.J., administers the SAT for the board.
Wayne J. Camara, the vice president of research and analysis for the College Board, called the dip in scores since last year 鈥渘ot statistically significant.鈥� But he said the declines are 鈥減rimarily attributable to a larger number of minority students鈥� taking the test.鈥�
Minority students accounted for nearly four in 10 test-takers in this year鈥檚 graduating class, making it the most ethnically diverse class of SAT-takers to date.
Moreover, Mr. Camara noted, this was the first year in which Maine鈥檚 high school seniors were required to take the SAT to graduate.
Difficulty the Same?
College Board officials say the new SAT, which includes not only the new essay section but also Algebra 2-based questions not found in the pre-2005 exam, is no harder than the test鈥檚 older version, an assurance critics question.
SOURCE: College Board
鈥淎fter they said [the scores of] last year were unusual, [this year鈥檚 scores] are starting to look like a pattern,鈥� said Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a Cambridge, Mass.-based testing-watchdog group.
鈥淚t鈥檚 especially hard to explain when ACT scores were up in much the same peer group,鈥� he added, referring to the other widely used college-entrance exam, administered by the Iowa City, Iowa-based nonprofit ACT Inc. The class of 2007鈥檚 average score on the ACT rose one-tenth of a percent over the class of 2006鈥檚.
Mr. Bunin said, however, that the new SAT test 鈥渨as very carefully constructed to equate back鈥� to the pre-2005 version.
In the class of 2007, 24 percent of students first learned either a language other than English or another language at the same time they learned English. That鈥檚 up 1 percentage point over last year鈥檚 class, and 7 percentage points over the class of 1997, the College Board reported.
The board also reported a 31 percent increase over the past two years in the number of students receiving SAT-fee waivers, intended for students from low-income families.
鈥淚 am encouraged by the greater numbers of students from all walks of life who are taking on the challenge of the SAT and college,鈥� Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, said in a statement.
Harvard鈥檚 Mr. Koretz also applauded the increasing diversity of SAT-takers, and suggested that score declines needed to be viewed in that context.
鈥淭he kids that are being added [to the pool of SAT-takers] are from historically underserved and lower-scoring groups. That tends to push scores down,鈥� Mr. Koretz said.
He posed this analogy: 鈥淚f a hospital starts bringing in more and more old patients and the mortality rate is still flat, that鈥檚 good. Old people die more.鈥�
Thomas Toch, a co-director of the Washington-based think tank Education Sector, also downplayed the importance of one-year gains or losses on the SAT鈥攏ot only because such minute shifts rarely fall outside the margin of error, but also because he doesn鈥檛 believe the exam measures learning very well.
鈥淪AT scores are largely a function of family income; they correlate more strongly with privilege than any other factor,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e should pay more attention to NAEP [the National Assessment of Educational Progress], which measures large samples of students on more curriculum-specific matter.鈥�
Gender gaps on all sections also remained mostly static since last year. The mean score for boys on the writing section continued to lag behind that of girls by 11 points, and the boys鈥� mean score on the math section continued to best the girls鈥� by 34 points.
Taking the long view, the mean score on the critical-reading section, formerly known as the verbal section, has declined 28 points since the class of 1972 took the SAT, according to the College Board. The mean math score has risen 6 points since then.
