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Endless Bummer: SAT Scores Still Declining

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James A. Bacon
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by James A. Bacon

More bad news on the reading, writing and ‘rithmatic front. SAT scores for the high-school graduating class of 2011 fell in all three subject areas to the lowest levels ever recorded, according to data released by the College Board Wednesday. Only 43% of students posted scores high enough to suggest they were ready to succeed at college. (Read the story in the Wall Street Journal.)

One reason scores are falling is that a higher percentage of high school students are taking the exams than ever before. Writes the Journal:

Declining scores can be attributed, in part, to a larger and more diverse test-taking population. As more students aim for college and sit for the exam, scores decline. Ten years ago, 8% of test takers were Latino, compared with 15% in 2011. For black students, the percentage jumped to 13%, compared with 9% in 2011. A growing percentage of students also grew up speaking a language other than English, and more than one-fifth of this year’s test takers were poor enough to receive a waiver to take the exam for free.

The fact is, more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds and crummy schools are taking the SATs. More people are aspiring to college, even though they are not academically prepared for it. Colleges will be happy to take them all, as long as someone can be found to pay, meaning more loans from Uncle Sam to students who may never graduate.

It may be true, as many studies have documented, that an increasing number of future jobs will require a college education. It’s a sad fact that a majority of American children will not be qualified to fill those positions. A large number of jobs probably will be exported overseas.

But cramming more students through the educational pipeline, regardless of their ability to succeed, is (a) a misallocation of society’s resources, (b) cruel to students whose unrealistic expectations are dashed, (c) costly to students who could be undergoing training and earning money in a job, and (d) shackling students with debt that an increasing number are unable to repay. Public policy needs to focus on fixing the K-12 educational system, not extending the practice of social promotion into college!

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11 responses to “Endless Bummer: SAT Scores Still Declining”

  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    the simple reality is that our schools – backed by the parents do not want robust academic standards.

    the parental advocate types do not want their kids to get bad grades so robust academics is an enemy….

    the kids without parental advocates just drift and muck their way along and no one dares to push them into more robust academics.

    contrast this to what Europe and Japan does – they have national curriculums, national testing and a two track system for college and non-college – called technical and BOTH.. REQUIRE academic rigor.

    Our schools are a reflection of us.

    We WILLINGLY spend 10K per kid but we don’t spend it in elementary to require academic rigor but instead we spend it on sports, clubs, and elective courses for a “well rounded education” for the kids whose parents want them to take everything from photo journalism to Latin IV as long as they don’t get whacked with a touch academic course.

    College is seen as the “easy” way to NOT have to deal with academically robust curricula.

    take a look at ANY University like UVA or Tech and look at the percentage of students enrolled in STEM degrees… if you look at both Universities at who is enrolled in STEM tracks – there are a LOT of foreign names…

    these are the same foreign names that you see on new patents…and new start-up technology companies… while American kids are looking for easy paths… to good paying jobs with benefits that are increasingly shrinking.

    right now – we have significant sentiment in the public against testing… against NCLB, against SOLS … against testing in general.

    All I can say is WTF?

    the testing is telling us what is wrong… including the ACT scores and our response is to do what.. ? get rid of those damned tests… right?

    and we say the politicians don’t want to make hard choices… ha ha ha

    you want the truth? we can’t stand the truth.

    go look at the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)

    http://www.military.com/ASVAB

    it tells a sad tale about the quality of education of our schools.

    it’s pretty bad when the minimum standards for the Armed Forces is 31 out of 100 and 49% of blacks can’t meet that standard.

  2. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    I am always amazed by the amount of smoke that spews out of American politics.

    Why isn’t there a sensible comparison of various educational approaches taken by various developed countries? I can say for a fact that Australia’s approach to what we would call K-12 education seems very different than ours. And rigorous testing is a big part of that system.

    Don’t get me wrong. I am not claiming that everybody else is doing better than America in education. I am asking why there is so little public debate about the different approaches used in developed countries.

    In fact, there is limited discussion of different approaches used by various school systems in the United States. For example, which school districts have the highest college graduation rates for the students who go to college?

    I thought “Waiting for Superman” was a great effort at explaining the US education system and proposing reforms. Needless to say, the screeching critics came forth to try to slap down everything about the documentary. They had no alternate plans – just a desire to maintain the very broken status quo.

    Larry is quite right about testing. BigGov in general and BigEd in particular hates accountability.

  3. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Larry,
    I tried to take the military test but they wouldn’t let me. I guess I am too old.

    Peter G.

  4. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    sorry Peter… do you want me to find a version you can take? You can take this one if you tell some fibs…

    here’s more info:
    http://www.military.com/ASVAB/0,,ASVAB_Explained1.html

    the germane point that I think is relevant is that the test not only requires a low 30 pass rate but how much higher you score determines your destiny in the armed forces in terms of how much training they are willing to invest in you and what kinds of jobs that are open to you.

    in my view – this is an excellent real-world introduction for young people.

    just FYI – one of the biggest tutoring services in Sylvan and Huntington these days is tutoring for the Military Aptitude Test – when those who think they’re going to join the military find out that it’s not a slam dunk to get in….

    if you think about it.. the types of jobs that are open to high school graduates that also provide health benefits are exceptionally limited and the military is one of the few last places…

  5. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    here’ some:

    http://www.military.com/asvab-test/practice/7

  6. Hydra Avatar
    Hydra

    Join the infantry and get health benefits.

  7. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    it’s one of the few jobs that a high school graduate can get health benefits for he and his family now days – and….. just like Medicare is becoming a budget albatross so is the Military Tricare program.

    but as I’ve been saying – the Military is not that easy to get into anymore and as the wars wind down – they’ tighten their standards even more ….

    Groveton supplied a very revealing answer to what kind of qualifications he was looking for – for new hires.

    A college degree in CS …OR several years of JAVA programming experience.

    So here’s a question – how does a high school graduate get a job programming in JAVA so he can get several years worth of experience?

    that’s a valid path to a good job but you can’t get there if you can’t even pass the military entrance test…..

    and about 1/2 of blacks cannot pass that test…. and all it requires for most services is a score of 30 out of 100.

    it’s very easy and very common to say it’s the parents fault but the parents are not going to be the ones who pay their kids entitlements when they grow up – … and that’s where – as a country – we are really screwed up … and that’s why other countries best us in international academic achievement.

    they are serious about education because they know that their entitlement programs are not sustainable if they do not produce an educated – and employable workforce.

  8. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    LarryG:

    Remember, I run a software company. We make software to sell to others. Our skill requirements (and willingness to pay) is different than an IT shop. While we both have a need to Java programmers, we have different expectations regarding skill.

    I think a high school graduate would have a very hard time getting a job as a JAVA programmer. There are some prodigies who can pull it off but not many.

    However, they probably don’t need a four year college degree either. Some time at NVCC or The University of Phoenix might be enough to get started. After that, it’s more about on the job training and natural curiosity (as well as a high tolerance for personal inconvenience).

  9. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    yes…but the essential point(s) confirmed by Groveton:

    1. – a student can gain the knowledge necessary to get that JAVA programming job through means other than a God-awful expensive 4-yr degree paid for with a govt loan (even though this would be a loan for a real job).

    2. – the “average” high school graduate – would have to have a pretty good education in order to be able to continue that education to become proficient in a job in the current technology-oriented world.

    Could high school offer a non-college technology-track curriculum?

    would that be a more cost-effective use of tax dollars than govt subsidies of colleges and govt subsidies of loans?

    non-college technology tracks is what European and Asian K-12 schools offer their kids… rather than treating non-college education as inferior and less resources devoted to it to start with.

    As I’ve said here – the problems we have – are of our own making – a refusal of us – to understand the purpose and role of publically-funded education as a strategic economic goal to compete for world jobs and reduce our entitlements rather than a govt-provided “perks” for the college-bound.

    we have really bad minimum standards for education in this country and we blame it on – ironically – on people who are not parenting as they might but even the ones that do “parent” properly – they themselves do not want academically robust standards.

  10. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I had alluded earlier to the non-trivial nature of military entrance testing standards known as the ASVAB – Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery

    I had invited folks to take the test – at the military.com site which unfortunately wants personal info …

    looking around, I found other sites that offer representative samples of the kinds of questions that the test asks:

    http://www.asvabprepinfo.com/arithmetic_reasoning.htm

    if you look over the questions here and you are a bit older – even in college-educated – but find the questions non-trivial –

    consider the circumstance of a parent who is not a college graduate and whom got a minimal high school education themselves.

    and consider further that our collective societal answer to low scores for many in high school is to 1. – oppose testing 2. oppose standards 3. blame the parents.

    does this describe an ignorant response to the problem?

  11. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    Keep it up, LarryG, you’re thinking straight now.

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