SAT Scores Highest in 31 Years

Aug. 29, 2000 -- High school students’ math scores on the SAT climbed this year to the highest level since 1969, while verbal scores held steady for a fifth year.

The test company attributed the increase to today’scollege-bound high school students taking more math and science andnursing higher ambitions.

The average math score on the college entrance exam was 514, up3 points from last year. The last time scores were higher was 31years ago, when the average was 517; it dipped as low as 492 in1980 and 1981.

The average verbal score this year was 505, as it has been since1996.

The figures, released today in Washington by the NewYork-based College Board, are based on the SAT scores of thisyear’s 1.26 million high school seniors who took the test sometimeduring high school. The math and verbal sections are each scored ona scale of 200 to 800.

“Over the last decade, male and female students from all ethnicbackgrounds have been taking more pre-calculus, calculus andphysics. These are some of the most rigorous courses available andhelp students develop excellent math skills,” said GastonCaperton, president of the College Board. “The SAT math scores ofstudents who take these courses are well above the nationalaverage.”

‘Not Good Enough’

Better math scores are good but not good enough, said JeanneAllen, founder of the Center for Education Reform, a Washingtonadvocacy group.

“We would expect our college-bound kids to master math andverbal skills, if not show major gains year after year,” Allensaid. “Particularly recognizing they have not learned as much asthey needed to in primary years, and these things are required incollege.”

The three-hour exam, first given in 1926, or the rival ACTentrance exam is required for undergraduate admission to most ofthe nation’s 3,500 four-year colleges and universities.

The $24 test is administered by the Educational Testing Servicein Princeton, N.J. The questions are mostly multiple-choice, andcalculators are permitted.

The scoring system sets 500 points as the average. For decades,the system was based on results from 10,000 test takers who weremostly boys in private schools. In 1995, SAT scoring was“re-centered” to reflect results from more diverse students.Averages for previous years were adjusted to reflect this, too.

Girls Gain

Boys’ usual lead on girls in math is slipping: Boys averaged 533to girls’ 498 — a 35-point difference, compared with 40 points ormore in the 1980s.

Verbal scores also showed boys ahead this year, but barely: 507against 504 for girls. The spread was nine points 10 years ago: 505for boys, 496 for girls.

The SAT includes a voluntary questionnaire. Here the CollegeBoard found evidence students are taking more math and science,getting better grades and setting higher expectations:

69 percent of test takers, boys and girls, said they took fouryears or more of math. Ten years ago it was 68 percent of boys, 62percent of girls. 88 percent took at least three years of science; a decade ago,78 percent. Mean grade point average for all 1.26 million seniors was 3.26 — a big jump from the 3.09 GPA in 1990. More expect to seek advanced degrees. Twenty-two percentplanned on a doctorate, 31 percent a master’s degree, 25 percent abachelor’s. Ten years ago, only 19 percent aimed for a doctorate,28 percent a master’s, and 28 percent a bachelor’s. More than a third who took the test, 37 percent, had parentswith only a high school diploma or none at all. In 1990, that wasso of 43 percent. This year, 34 percent were minorities comparedwith 27 percent a decade ago. As they have since the early 1970s, girls outnumbered boys amongthe test takers. They accounted for 54 percent of test takers,versus 52 percent in 1990.