State increase in average SAT scores best taken with a grain of salt

Published October 2, 2013

Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, October 1, 2013.

North Carolina’s average SAT scores for the 2012-13 school year have been released and that means politicians will soon be using the news to make political hay.

But voters should be skeptical of any political message tied to average SAT scores.

While Forsyth County saw a decrease in scores for the math part of the test, state average SAT scores for reading and math rose by four points to 1,001 out of a possible 1,600 last school year. That’s a significant increase that might lead many to think that either our schools got better or that the class of 2013 was exceptionally bright.

Either of those conclusions might be true, but average SAT scores are not the evidence to prove them. SAT scores are not, and never have been, designed to serve as a gauge of overall academic performance by an individual school, school district or state. They are designed to assess the test-taker’s preparation for the first year of college, and not much more.

Average SAT scores can be influenced by so many factors outside of the relative merits of an individual school or district that they become almost the perfect tool for misleading the public. For example, a really good school in an impoverished area still might not raise its average SAT scores as high as an underperforming school in a more affluent neighborhood.

And the number of students who take the test has a huge impact on how well a district or state does on its average score. That’s because almost all of the best performing students take the test to apply to college. Increase in participation usually occurs among students less interested in college.

That’s what happened this year. North Carolina, whose national SAT average has often suffered because our schools encourage marginal students to take it, saw a significant drop in test-takers because our schools are now mandating use of the ACT, a different test with a different testing method. So the state’s average rose.

Congratulations to all students who did well on the SAT, but let’s remember that it is an individual assessment, not one of our schools in general.