More Latinos Take SAT, but Scores Lagging

More Latino students are taking college entrance exams but their scores are falling further behind those of Asian and white classmates, the College Board reported Tuesday.

The widening gulf is disturbing to educators because many Latinos are unable to compete for admission to the nation’s better colleges, particularly with the end of affirmative action programs in California and elsewhere.

Nationally, math scores on the SAT college entrance exam rose one point to a 27-year high in 1998, but the verbal score remained stubbornly unchanged for the third consecutive year, the board reported.

In California, the average verbal score inched up one point to 497 on the exam, leaving the state eight points below the national average of 505.

In math, California’s class of 1998 recorded a two-point gain from the previous year, to 516. That boosted the state four points above the national average of 512 and continued four consecutive years of improvement.

SAT scores are a closely watched measure of student achievement because they are required by 90% of the nation’s four-year colleges and universities. While serving as a barometer of educational quality in the United States, they also reflect social and demographic change.

The fact that overall scores are staying the same or rising slowly was seen as relatively good news--given that students are increasingly likely to be poor, to be minorities and to speak English as a second language.

“If we were a company and looked at it as return on investment, you’d say ‘Not bad,’ ” said California Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin. The improvement, she said, “is a pretty important achievement.”

Still, the scores reflect only the academic preparation of the state’s college-bound students. And the combined verbal and math scores of African American and Mexican American students in California continue to lag several hundred points below the combined score for white students. A similar but smaller gap exists nationally.

Nationwide, students in the suburbs, where more of the students are white, are increasing their lead over students in cities, who are more likely to be African American or Latino.

“This growing disparity is particularly troublesome,” said College Board President Donald M. Stewart.

He said the 1.2 million public and private school students who took the SAT nationally are increasingly diverse ethnically, indicating that minority students “continue to see college as the route to a better life,” Stewart said.

A decade ago, three-quarters of the test takers were white; today only two-thirds are white.

African Americans and Latinos who take the SAT are studying more chemistry, physics and calculus than they did previously, but still not as much as white and Asian students. As a result, Stewart said, “even though . . . minorities are better prepared for college and have higher academic aspirations than ever before, the odds against them seem to be growing.”

In another trend, Stewart noted that grade inflation appears to be continuing. Since 1988, the percentage of students whose grades average better than an A-minus has increased from 28% to 38%, while the SAT scores of that group have fallen 12 points on the verbal side and three points in math.

Women continue to report higher grades than men in high school and now make up the majority of those taking the SAT. But their SAT scores are still lagging--seven points behind in verbal and 37 points in math.

California’s white students scored better than white students nationally. But other groups of students in the state were generally behind their peers. Asian students in California, for example, averaged 550 in math compared with 562 for Asian students nationally.

In the last 10 years, the scores of Asian American students nationally have risen the fastest--21 points in math and 16 points on the verbal part of the test. White students’ scores in math have risen 14 points and gone up four points on the verbal questions, which among other things test students’ ability to understand and analyze what they’ve read.

In contrast, the average verbal score of Mexican Americans nationally, which the College Board reports separately from other Latinos, has dropped six points since 1988 while their math scores have not changed.

Scores for African American students are rising slowly but are further behind Asian and white students than they were a decade ago.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, where 90% of the students are African American or Latino, the average verbal score rose for the fourth consecutive year. But, at 433, the number is 72 points below the national average. The district’s math score was unchanged at 452.

College Board officials said the slight gains in California and Los Angeles are nonetheless striking, given the demographics of the state’s students.

Amy Wilkens, an analyst for the Education Trust, said the gap in test scores between minorities and white students can be closed with better teaching. Researchers have found that poor and minority students are more likely to have unqualified teachers than are their suburban counterparts.

“If we single-mindedly and systematically went about ensuring that low-income kids and kids of color had teachers who were as qualified, you’d cut 50% of the gap right there,” Wilkens said. “If you put the most qualified teachers with students who were in the deepest trouble, you’d eliminate the gap.”

Suburban and affluent students also enjoy another advantage--greater access to commercial test preparation courses that can add 120 points or more to a student’s SAT score.

Seppy Basili, executive director of pre-college programs for Kaplan Educational Centers, said students who do not have the benefit of such courses can still raise their scores by 140 points simply by doing all their homework.

* L.A. RESULTS: Verbal scores rise slightly while math remains steady. B3

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State, U.S. SAT Scores

Here are the average scores on the SAT College Entrance Exam for California’s and the nation’s graduating class of 1998. The scores are divided into ethnic groups according to how the students identified themselves. The first and third columns show the average verbal and math scores of all students tested. The second and fourth columns show how many points the average gained or lost on each portion of the test compared to 1997.

CALIFORNIA SCORES

*--*

Avg. +/- Avg. +/- Verbal ’97 Math ’97 American Indian or Alaskan Native 489 -1 497 +2 Asian, Asia American or Pacific Islander 488 +2 550 same Black 433 +1 428 +4 Hispanic Mexican American 442 +3 452 +3 Puerto Rican 478 -6 478 same Other Hispanic origin 450 -8 456 -3 White 532 +1 540 +2 Other 518 +3 526 +1 1998 State Average 497 516 1997 State Average 496 514

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****

NATIONAL SCORES

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Avg. +/- Avg. +/- Verbal ’97 Math ’97 American Indian or Alaskan Native 480 +5 483 +8 Asian, Asia American or Pacific Islander 498 +2 562 +2 Black 434 same 426 +3 Hispanic Mexican American 453 +2 460 +2 Puerto Rican 452 -2 447 same Other Hispanic origin 461 -5 466 -2 White 526 same 528 +2 Other 511 -1 514 same 1998 National Average 505 512 1997 National Average 505 511

*--*

Source: The College Board