Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > May > 29 > Entry
The SAT gets harder
Through Joanne Jacobs’ blog I found a very interesting Wall Street Journal column by David Kahn, a New York-based SAT prep tutor, who talks about how the test has changed in recent years to demand different skills from kids.
The bottom line? The SAT is harder today, demanding more reading skill than ever. And today’s scores really are not comparable to scores of the past, so we need to readjust our expectations.
I’m not sure I agree with all of Kahn’s conclusions.
For instance, he claims the test today does a better job of identifying what kids are well educated, declares that education quality in the U.S. had sunk since the 1960s and dismisses out of hand that cultural bias or changes in the test-taking pool have affected test scores over that time.
He offers no evidence to support these assertions, and I don’t think there is any data that can prove any of it. ETS itself has never claimed the SAT in any way measures how well educated a student is. The test has its roots in intelligence testing, which was an effort to measure innate intelligence not quality of education, and its goal today is to predict college readiness, which it does well only for some subsets of test takers.
And it is easily proveable that a far greater range of students, not just a small set of college bound kids, are part of the SAT pool today, which has to affect scores.
Even so, I can agree with him that the quality of education as a factor in SAT score declines may have been underplayed on some sides of this debate. Probably the quality of education, test changes, test bias problems and an expanding test-taking pool all play roles in the decline in SAT scores over time.
Still, I found Kahn’s analysis of the changes in the nature of SAT questions interesting, along with his claim that adults cannot compare the scores they got in their day with the scores their kids get today. And colleges, too, need to adjust expectations.
Do you know your own SAT score off the top of your head? For those with teenagers, have you compared their scores with yours and either been reassured or worried about the quality of education they received?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Testing
Comments
By Terri
June 1, 2006 2:44 PM | Link to this
OldProf - which test does Dayton Public use?By Oldprof
May 30, 2006 10:50 AM | Link to this
Frankly, until the nation adopts a single, valid set of standardized tests, and keeps the scoring standards consistent, NONE of these data will be meaningful. Ohio state tests get re-designed yearly, and the state sets the passing score AFTER the testing is completed! At least Dayton Public has settled on consistent use of one test, year after year, to measure student achievement—that’s probably helped guide them in getting their scores to rise on all measures.By Rickk
May 29, 2006 7:13 PM | Link to this
Scott, did he discuss how several years ago the scoring calculation changed to mask the declining SAT scores? I can recall year after year reading that the most recent SAT score was lower than the previous year and was the lowest in memory. So they waved their wand and walla! the old Lake Wobegon effect.By Mary
May 29, 2006 6:49 PM | Link to this
I did not successfully link to the Wall Street Journal column. However, I have some concerns about colleges making some of the standardized tests optional, according to some recent news articles. I think it is a way colleges are catering to a dumbed down market. Class grades are so inflated they are not a valuable discriminator, particularly for highly intelligent, but low achieving,and underchallenged students who blow off grading systems and the curriculum. A lot of students in the gifted community start taking the SAT and ACT in 6th grade. Some of these students max out the test at very young ages. I believe my son started taking mainly the SAT (and also the ACT at least once in 6th or 7th grade) and his scores came in handy for the early college programs. It was a standardized gauge I had as a parent to see academic progress each year. He did not mind taking standardized tests. He preferred the SAT over the ACT, but his senior year in high school, he did not bother to sign up for any since he also was about to simultaneously receive his bachelor’s degree. I think the SAT has a reputation among the gifted community as being a more reliable indicator of intelligence or ability, while the ACT is more achievement oriented. However, I believe the SAT has recently been revamped to also be more achievement oriented. The education system does not seem to be interested in spotting and developing talent based on natural intellect. The system seems impossibly intent on making all students intellectually the same, which I think is a disservice to all students and society. That would be like expecting me to win American Idol or a slot in the NBA. It’s not going to happen unless I receive a transplanted voice box, better lungs and have my legs stretched.