Schools Address Lower SAT Scores

Some Say New Test Simply Sets New Bar

When results from the 2006 SAT were released last month, they landed with something of a thud in Charles County.

There, students' scores on the college entrance exam dropped 30 points in reading and 29 points in math on the newly revised test. Although scores declined generally in this first administration of the new SAT, Charles recorded the largest drop of any school system in the Washington region, according to the College Board, which develops and oversees the test.

One Charles County Board of Education member decried the results as evidence of a serious problem within the school system, but administrators in Charles did not acknowledge the decline, saying the new scores are from a revamped test so different from the old exam that scores on the two cannot be fairly compared.

"It's like comparing apples and oranges," Deputy Superintendent Ronald G. Cunningham said of the latest SAT, which includes modified math and reading (formerly verbal) sections and a new writing section.

School officials in Charles were not the only holdouts on SAT comparisons. Montgomery County public school administrators, who saw a much smaller decline in scores -- by two points in both math and reading -- similarly refused to compare the new SAT scores with those from prior years.

"We're establishing this year as a new baseline because of the new SAT," said Montgomery schools spokesman Brian Edwards. "Future years will be compared against this year's."

SAT officials, however, dismissed such explanations. "We worked very hard to make sure those scores were comparable," said Brian O'Reilly, executive director of SAT information services. "It was essential so colleges could compare students applying using the old test and those with the new.

"Yes, scores fluctuate from year to year," O'Reilly added, "but if a school district's looking at an increase or decrease of more than 20 points, they should be trying to figure out if there's some explanation other than the kids just didn't do as well this time around."

Across the nation, average scores dropped by five points in reading, the biggest decline in 31 years, and by two points in math. The slight nationwide decline, SAT officials believe, was caused not by changes in format but in student behavior: Fewer students took the test more than once to improve their scores, and some took it earlier as juniors to avoid the new version.

In Virginia, the District and Maryland, the average combined scores for math and reading dropped by 14 or less points. The combined drop in Charles was 59 points. One of the county's schools, Lackey High School, posted an overall decline of 90 points.

"It should be cause for concern," said school board member Margaret Young, who has criticized the county's approach to the SAT in the past. She pointed to the small portion of Charles seniors taking the test, 34 percent of last year's class compared with 70 percent of seniors statewide.

"With so few seniors taking the test, it's like culling the herd," she said. "Our scores should be way, way higher than the rest of the state's."