SAT Score Averages Rise Slightly After Long Slide

High school seniors nationwide averaged slightly higher scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) this year, halting at least temporarily a worrisome decline blamed on television, immigration and inadequate education.

However, some experts took little solace in the latest scores on the college-entrance examination, which remain far below those of the previous generation of students and also reflect sharp differences among ethnic and income groups.

After dropping to a record low last year, average performance in the verbal section of the much dreaded 2 1/2-hour test rose one point this year to 423, according to a report released today. Math scores also climbed a bit in 1992, up two points to 476 after declining last year for the first time in a decade. Each section of the multiple-choice exam is graded on a scale from 200 to 800 points.

While conceding that “one or two points may not seem like much,” Donald M. Stewart, president of the College Board, the New York-based organization that sponsors the SAT, said he hoped the 1992 results “start an upward trend that puts the score declines of the 1980s behind us.” Educational reforms and tougher high school classes may help, Stewart said.

Yet, as they did last year, SAT officials warned of a gulf between an educational elite and the rest of American students. The new SAT report shows that scores in big urban centers and rural areas are significantly below those in suburbs and smaller cities, echoing similar patterns in family income and parents’ educational achievement.

For example, the average verbal score in big cities this year was 411, below suburbs and smaller cities by 21 points. Rural test takers averaged 459 on math, 26 points lower than counterparts in suburbs and smaller cities.

“I think the SAT scores do demonstrate dramatically that we have a rising problem of haves and have-nots and that would indicate two Americas, an achieving upper-middle and upper class and an underachieving underclass,” Stewart said in a telephone interview.

Much-debated score gaps persist between males and females, while African-Americans and Latinos continue to perform less well than Anglos and Asian-Americans, the report said. Most ethnic groups showed tiny score gains in 1992, except for Mexican-Americans, who showed a troubling decrease of five points in verbal, to 372, and two points in math, to 425.

The worsening scores among Mexican-Americans may have been partly caused by an otherwise positive trend, a 6% rise in the number of those students who took the test in hopes of attending college. While a wider sample brings in more youngsters with limited English skills, Stewart said he thought something deeper caused the scores to drop. But he was not sure what.

Carla Ferri, director of undergraduate admissions for the UC system, said she was concerned about the Mexican-American scores. “We are watching it very carefully to see what it really, really means,” she said. Otherwise, she said, the recent reform movement in California high schools, requiring more and tougher courses for graduation, seems to have helped produce “some good news, but not extraordinary news.”

California high school seniors this year recorded an average 416 on the verbal SAT section, up one point from last year, and 484 in math, up two. Last year, California scores dropped.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said he was encouraged that the decline in state scores stopped, particularly in light of the demographic changes and increases in California students for whom English is a second language. Minority students in California made up 52% of test takers here this year, compared to 36% in 1985, Honig reported. Nationally in 1992, 29% of test takers were minorities.

Whatever small progress the 1992 scores represent, the worsening over a generation has been dramatic. In 1969, scores were 40 points higher in verbal and 17 higher in math. Besides the different demographics, experts say the decline was caused in part by less rigorous high school education and a decrease in the time students devote to reading.

“The strong, strong competition from television and MTV is part of it,” said Robert Cameron, the College Board’s senior research associate. Also worrisome, he said, is the apparent “loosening of standards” in high schools, as evidenced by rising classroom grade point averages nationwide just as SAT scores generally declined.

For example, the overall grade average for the Class of 1992 was 3.12, up from 3.07 in 1987; in the same five years, SAT verbal scores dropped seven points and math was unchanged.

SAT critics say they are more convinced than ever that the test is biased against females and some minorities. On a mass level, the SAT accurately reflects problems in American education but its prominence blocks progress, according to Monty Neill, associate director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a Massachusetts group long opposed to SATs.

“The real concern is what we do about the inferior education a lot of kids are getting. Talking about a couple of points score increase is not a way to get a solution. It’s pretty meaningless,” Neill said.

Scores for females rose one point from last year on verbal, to 419, and three on math to 456, while males were up two in verbal to 428 and two in math to 499.

More than 1.03 million high school seniors took the SATs in 1992. In addition to Mexican-Americans, averages by major ethnic groups nationally and changes from the pervious year were:

American Indians, 395 in verbal, up two, and 442 in math, up five points. African-Americans, 352 verbal, up one, and 385, unchanged, in math. Asian-Americans, 413 in verbal, up two, and 532 math, up two. Puerto Ricans, 366 verbal, up five, and unchanged at 406 math. Anglos, 442 in verbal, up one, and 491 in math, up two.

Matthew Fissinger, director of undergraduate admissions at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, cautioned against reading too much into such relatively small shifts. “I think we are looking at the same general level of aptitude. A change of one point or two in one way or another probably doesn’t reflect anything significant.”

SAT Scores

Here is a look at how seniors who graduated from high school this year fared on the Scholastic Aptitude Test as compared with the average scores since 1969.

National average scores in both the verbal and math portions of the SAT increased slightly, as did the scores for California.

VERBAL

Calif U.S. 1992 416 423 1991 415 422

MATH

Calif U.S. 1992 484 476 1991 482 474

SOURCE: College Board