Students Bombed the SAT This Year, in Four Charts; Scores on the reading were the worst in decades..

[Purveyor]

September 3, 2015 — 1:10 AM EDT

This year's high school graduates did worse on the SAT than their peers last year. And there's more bad news for the College Board, which administers the test: Fewer people are taking the SAT than are taking the ACT, its top competitor.

Students in the high school class of 2015 turned in the lowest critical reading score on the SAT college entrance exam in more than 40 years, with all three sections declining from the previous year. Meanwhile, ACT Inc. reported that nearly 60 percent of all 2015 high school graduates took the ACT, up from 49 percent in 2011.



The mean score on the math portion of the SAT, 511, is the lowest since 1999. The highest possible score on each section is 800. The reading score of 495 is the worst since 1972, according to data provided by the College Board. The test administrator reported the lowest score for the SAT's writing section since it began in 2005.



The number of high school graduates who took the SAT reached an all-time high of almost 1.7 million this year. However, that lags the rival ACT by more than 225,000. The SAT is being revised, with the first administration next March. The new test will be similar to the ACT, as penalties will be eliminated for wrong answers and it will have an optional writing test.



ACT Inc. also delivered gloomy news about the preparedness of the next generation of college students. The company measured how many students were ready for college based on their scores on the ACT this year. It determines readiness by looking at the share of test takers who scored above a certain benchmark, which the company says will give a student a 75 percent chance of earning a C or above in a corresponding college course.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-03/students-bombed-the-sat-this-year-in-four-charts

[Half-Century Man]

1. Well it looks like the republican/libertarian fevered wet dream.

Of a worker class crippled by lack of opportunity is finally coming together.
Kill the schools, kill the poverty escape mechanism. More money for the ones who need none.

[tecelote]

4. +1

[Oneironaut]

7. Workers to make $ .50 per hour. Need to be competitive with a China!

The right wing meme is something like that.

[silverweb]

2. Semi-literate serfs.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Just what the "lords" of the oligarchy want.


[font color="purple"]Go, Bernie!
Ride the purple wave and join The Purple Revolution!

[JDPriestly]

3. Looks like NO Child Left Behind has failed.

I wonder how the scores from charters measured up against those from private schools and from public schools.

[DirtyHippyBastard]

5. Also, reading from screens instead of books doesn't help them,

and I think most of the youngsters prefer their do-hickeys to books.
"evidence from laboratory experiments, polls and consumer reports indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper that many people miss and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done."

from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

[flamingdem]

11. ^^^ this

and text messaging all day doesn't help one let learning sink in..

[seabeckind]

6. Seems about right.

So, how long has it been since the educators determined curriculum and methods?

And not politicians and profiteers?

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. I guess this answers the does social media promote verbal competence question, huh?`

[flamingdem]

12. ? r u saying?

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. IDK ...

[MisterP]

9. "bad math"? it's surged roughly as hard as the reading/writing parts have fallen

[AwakeAtLast]

10. Schoolchildren are hungry, stressed and tired

The disaster of the Bush years have created conditions that have been especially hard on our youngest citizens.