U.S., State SAT Scores Show Marked Declines

Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of high school seniors fell to a record low this year in verbal skills, while mathematical scores declined for the first time since 1980, the College Board announced Monday.

Officials warned that the test scores showed a disturbing gap in education skills between a small elite bound for the most selective colleges and all other students who took the SAT.

National average scores on the examination, crucial in many college admissions decisions, dropped two points from last year in each of its sections--to 422 in verbal and 474 in math. In California, the average verbal score was down four points to 415 and the average in math fell two points to 482. (Each section of the 2 1/2-hour, multiple-choice test is scored on a scale of from 200 to 800 points.)

Some of the decline, reflecting immigration, was caused by an increase in the number of test takers for whom English is a second language, said spokesmen for the College Board, the New York-based organization that sponsors the test. However, the officials suggested that many students must take more college-preparatory courses and that the quality of those classes must improve.

“We need to transform our educational system from one of low expectations for too many kids to one that enables all students to reach the potential we know they have,” Donald W. Stewart, College Board president, said in a statement.

Stewart said he was disturbed by a persistent gap in scores “between a small class of educational elite and an underclass of students academically ill-prepared for the demands of college or the workplace.”

An elite 20% of the test takers scored about 100 points higher than the national average on each of the two parts of the SAT. Those students were identified as also taking achievement tests in such areas as history and chemistry that are required by very selective colleges.

Many Orange County school districts still had not received their 1991 SAT scores by late Monday. Others declined to release the figures until district officials had a chance to study them this week. Last year, scores in verbal skills dropped for a majority of Orange County’s 15 high school districts, while math scores increased. Still, with one exception, Orange County schools surpassed state and national average SAT scores in 1990.

In response to the latest scores, U. S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander renewed his call for voluntary national testing of youngsters in the fourth, eighth and 12th grades so students who need help can be identified early. “The simple fact is that even our best students generally don’t know enough and can’t do enough to assure success in tomorrow’s world,” Alexander said.

The SAT is criticized by some because of gaps between scores of males and females and between whites and some minorities. Critics allege that those differences are caused by biases built into the test. For example, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a Massachusetts-based group that long has opposed the SAT, once again described the SAT as “destructive” and said colleges should stop requiring it for admissions.

The College Board says differences in testing are caused by educational and economic backgrounds of students and their parents. Nevertheless, the College Board last year announced changes to address, in part, allegations of unfairness. Those changes, to be phased in by 1994, include permission to use calculators and the elimination of exercises to choose antonyms.

The much-discussed gaps continued in 1991.

Males averaged 426 in verbal, down three points from last year, and 497 in math, down two. Females averaged 418 in verbal, down one point, and 453 in math, down two. Whites did better than all minority groups in the verbal section, but Asian-Americans topped whites and other groups in math.

Asians and Puerto Ricans were the only major ethnic group to show improvements this year, but minorities generally showed some impressive gains since the 1970s.

The College Board called demographics important. This year, 16% of the test takers--compared to 13% five years ago--said English was not their first language or that they were bilingual. The figure was 34% in California this year.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said he was pleased that Californians’ math scores are eight points above the national average. Verbal scores in the state are seven points below the country, partly because of the influx of non-English-speaking immigrants, he maintained. But Honig also blamed social conditions and budget cuts. “Our kids watch too much television, don’t read enough and are not required to study sophisticated enough materials,” he said.

In addition, Honig stressed that only 28% of California students--compared to 40% nationwide--take the recommended college-bound curriculum of 20 academic courses in English, math, history, sciences and foreign languages over four years. “That is nothing to write home about,” the superintendent said.

Overall, 1.03 million students from the class of 1991 took the SAT. National verbal averages were the lowest since 1969, when such data was first kept and the score was 463. Math scores generally declined between 1969 and 1980, from 493 to 466, and then rose to 476 by last year.

The 1991 SAT averages of major ethnic groups nationally were:

* Whites, 441 verbal, down one point from last year and down 10 points since 1976 when ethnic breakdowns were first kept; 489 math, down two since 1990 and down four since 1976.

* Blacks, 351 verbal, down one from last year but 19 higher than in 1976; 385 math, unchanged from last year, up 31 since 1976.

* Puerto Ricans, 361 verbal, up two from last year and down three from 1976; 406 math, up one from 1990 and up five from 1976.

* Asian-Americans, 411 verbal, up one from 1990 but down three from 1976; 530 math, up two from last year and up 12 from 1976.

* Mexican-Americans, 377 verbal, down three from last year but up six since 1976; 427 math, down two from 1990 but up 17 since 1976.