Average SAT Scores Dip Across County

Ventura County high school students saw their verbal and math scores drop slightly in the last year on one of the nation’s most important college assessment tests, ending a five-year trend of improvement.

Despite the decline, local students still scored higher than the national and state averages on the SAT.

And local educators, as well as College Board officials in New York, cautioned against placing any significance on the one-year dip in scores.

In Ventura County, average verbal scores dropped three points, from 527 in 2000 to 524 this year, and math scores decreased from 544 in 2000 to 535 in 2001.

Nationwide, about 50% of all schools and districts saw increases or decreases of at least 10 points in verbal and math scores, said Janice Gams, a College Board spokeswoman.

“That suggests to me that changes from one year to the next are not significant,”Gams said. “Looking over the longer term is how you see larger trends.”

Comparing this year’s scores with those from 10 years ago, Ventura County has improved significantly, even as many more students take the exam, said Ventura County Supt. of Schools Chuck Weis.

“That’s the good news. The question is, do we do anything about the bad news?” Weis said.

He wouldn’t recommend any changes, Weis added, especially in light of a recent proposal by UC President Richard C. Atkinson to drop the SAT as a requirement for admission at all University of California campuses.

Many other Ventura County school district officials agreed.

“Any decrease is certainly not something we like to see, but at the same time these are very small decreases,” said Bob Rizzardi, coordinator of secondary testing in the Simi Valley Unified School District. “I don’t think it’s critical.”

In Simi Valley, average math and verbal scores dropped by seven points this year. Since 1995, however, average verbal scores in Simi Valley have gone up from 413 to 521. Math scores have increased by 30 points over six years.

In Oak Park, where a record 84% of seniors took the SAT during the 2000-01 school year, it was a similar story.

“We’re not reacting to individual gains or losses but to scores over time,” said Marilyn Lippiatt, superintendent of Oak Park Unified School District.

Ventura County’s average combined score--out of a possible total of 1,600 points for both verbal and math--was 1,059 this year, down from 1,071 in 2000. The greater loss was in math, down nine points to 535.

That compares with the state’s average combined score of 1,015 and the national average of 1,020.

Scores from individual schools in Ventura County varied widely--with those in the east county generally higher than those in the west--mirroring trends found on other standardized tests such as the Stanford 9.

Oak Park High School was the county’s top achiever with a combined score of 1,113 points; Fillmore High had the county’s lowest combined score of 870 points.

Because the scores are averaged, reliability declines as the pool of test-takers becomes smaller, officials said. For example, a few very low scores at a large school would not have the same effect as they do at a school like Fillmore High, where only 48 students took the exam this year.

Still, Fillmore Principal John Wilber said he does not understand why scores there dropped 39 points in verbal and seven points in math after a 50-point overall increase just two years ago.

“I am lost for words about why this happens,” Wilber said. “We thought we were on the right track.”

Weis said the decreases countywide could have resulted from a heightened emphasis on teaching the material students need to know to pass the state’s high school exit exam and to do well on the Stanford 9 achievement test.

It is unclear whether that focus has affected student performance on the SAT, but school administrators said it is an idea that should be studied.

Gary Davis, interim superintendent of Oxnard Union High School District, where nearly all five high schools saw losses on both portions of the test, said he is concerned about “testing fatigue.”

“I cannot point to anything that may be responsible for this,” he said. “But we have to do something to improve these scores next year.”

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Ventura County SAT Scores

Conejo Valley Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Thousand Oaks High 557 569 543 559 Newbury Park High 533 543 523 542 Westlake High 552 572 551 584

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Fillmore Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Fillmore High 420 450 459 457

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Moorpark Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Moorpark High 536 539 528 538

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Oak Park Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Oak Park High 541 572 564 579

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Ojai Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Nordhoff High 532 559 544 551

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Oxnard Union High

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Camarillo High 541 546 552 572 Channel Islands High 450 466 465 482 Hueneme High 437 443 456 475 Oxnard High 509 511 506 518 Rio Mesa High 492 504 504 538

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Santa Paula Union High

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Santa Paula High 461 459 455 456

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Simi Valley Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Royal High 517 532 520 539 Santa Susana High 557 546 530 520 Simi Valley High 517 536 539 558

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Ventura Unified

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Districts 2000-2001 1999-2000 and schools Verbal Math Verbal Math Buena High 549 554 527 519 Ventura High 521 525 512 526 Ventura County average 524 535 527 544 State average 498 517 497 518 National average 506 514 505 514

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NOTE: Possible maximum score for verbal and math sections combined is 1,600.

Sources: Ventura County school districts, Ventura County superintendent of schools office