CER News Alert: SAT Increase -- The Real Story

News Alert

SAT Increase -- The Real Story

(August 24, 1995) The 1995 SAT Scores were released yesterday, and while posting significant gains, the changes may be more cosmetic rather than from marked progress in students.

The announcement comes on the heels of two separate questionable, public announcements by the U.S. Department of Education that there are signs of progress in public education. A pattern has begun to emerge, from education officials that have been traveling with their message: Things are getting better, not worse; this is no time to make budget cuts; the schools need our reforms, like Goals 2000.

Pretty sweeping statements, but they're being made nonetheless. A more detailed analysis of what has happened with the SAT, however, shows a very different picture, one that isn't making the headlines, yet can be found in the story. To quote this morning's Wall Street Journal, "...the reason (for the SAT increase) may have more to do with changes in the test than improvement in schools." The following set of talking points may help you respond to questions and address this issue in the big picture.

The SAT was completely overhauled from last year and previous years. The new SAT has "fewer questions, longer reading passages, fewer multiple-choice math questions and on antonym section in the verbal section." (WSJ) Students have an additional 30 minutes to take the test.
SAT gains are mainly limited to those at the top of the scale. "Critics say smarter kids have more time to take the test," and that the test has been made easier for the better-prepared students.
SAT prep firms say the test is "more coachable" because vocabulary is tested in context, as opposed to isolated antonyms, that used to be considered one of the toughest and most time consuming portions of the test.
Officials say the test more accurately reflects what is being taught in school. In other words, rather than hold high a specific standard, to test on those skills colleges think are necessary, the College Board is saying "let's throw out antonyms since no one learns them anymore anyway. And because fewer children are learning to read well, why should we be the ones to say they need to do otherwise?"
Officials nevertheless are using the results to suggest that public education is on the upswing. However, had real achievement been the cause of the increased SAT scores, one could argue that such progress should then have been noted on the NAEP Reading Report Card issued this summer. NAEP shows that barely 36% of 12th graders can read at the proficient level, and only 31% of 8th graders and fewer than half of all fourth graders can.
The U.S. Department of Education, in its 1995 Condition of Education, says that the two verbal portions -- last year's and this -- are hardly comparable. Only the math portions are similar.
The ACT, which is also used for college placement, also underwent a dramatic change several years ago. At the time, officials acknowledged that they couldn't compare the new with the old.
Scores for this year's ACT-takers did not change dramatically. If students were improving dramatically across the board, it is likely that those who took the ACT would have posted equal gains.
Next year the SAT's new re-centered scores will go into effect, raising the average score artificially to 500. And, a perfect score can be gotten even after getting several questions wrong.

Few get pleasure in denying that children are improving. However, it is those closest to the children -- the teachers, parents, employers -- that know best whether or not things are getting better. Their evaluations, taken with larger evaluations like NAEP and many state proficiency tests, show that things have not changed for the better, many children are learning less, and that despite lower drop-out rates, more college-bound students and "better" SATs, WHAT children are required to know today to get by is far below standards of the past, and far less than they need to.

With hundreds of school systems passing children despite failing grades, and little proficiency in basic skills, this is no time for celebration. The "blob" is at it again. Fearing the worst (i.e. reforms like charters, choice, new methods of accountability), they've launched an unprecedented campaign to convince Americans that things are o.k. And their biggest ally is in Washington, gearing up for a reelection campaign where good news means votes.

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The Center for Education Reform is a non-profit, national advocacy group working to improve the nation's schools. For more information about this or other education reform issues, please call (202) 822-9000 or (800) 521-2118, or send e-mail to cerdc@aol.com.

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