Educators note more test-takers had a first language other than English
Scores on the critical reading portion of the SAT college entrance exam fell three points to their lowest level on record last year, and combined reading and math scores reached their lowest point since 1995.
The College Board, which released the scores Wednesday, said the results reflect the record number of students from the high school class of 2011 who took the exam and the growing diversity of the test-taking pool — particularly Hispanics. As more students aim for college and take the exam, it tends to drag down average scores.
Still, while the three-point decline to 497 may look small in the context of an 800-point test, it was only the second time in the last two decades reading scores have fallen as much in a single year. And reading scores are now notably lower than scores as recently as 2005, when the average was 508.
Average math scores for the class of 2011 fell one point to 514 and scores on the critical reading section fell two points to 489.
3 comments:
Not surprising.
Teachers don't teach children how to read anymore, well in the practical sense anyway. If you don't believe me, go to an elementary school and see for yourself. This is in NO way a dig on teachers, as they are mandated what to teach.
With NCLB and the new Race initiative, these scores will undoubtedly go down.
My mother works in a middle school and I can assure you that they acctually do teach kids to read because I sat in on one of her classes just a few months ago at the end of the last school year....its the parents job to enforce reading at home, just a few hours a day in school will not do the trick with all of the subjects they must cover.
statistically speaking, unless one can show that these scores are significantly different from 2010 or any other year, this is a waste of time "reporting".
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