State SAT Scores
The “SAT Scores by State” table (Sept. 27) shows a wonderful way for California to drastically improve its SAT score average at no cost to the taxpayers. Examination of the data shows that states that encourage only the best students to take the test, e.g., Michigan (11%) and Illinois (14%), get high scores. States like New York and Pennsylvania that dragoon most students into taking the test (over 70%) get low average scores. Thus as a modest proposal I suggest that we can raise our average SAT score by letting only our best students take the SATs, instead of the 45% who take it now. Our students won’t learn any more that way, but at least it will protect our schools from uninformed criticism.
In passing I might note that California’s performance is right “on target” considering the percentage of our students taking the test and is very close to the national average.
C. RAYMOND MULLIN
Santa Barbara
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