SAT score drop biggest in 31 years
by The Associated Press and staff reports                                   

The nation’s high school class of 2006 recorded the sharpest drop in SAT scores in 31 years, a decline that the exam’s owner, the College Board, said was partly due to some students taking the newly lengthened test only once instead of twice.

Fatigue wasn’t to blame, the College Board insisted, even though this year’s class was the first to take a new version of the exam which added an essay. It now takes an average of three hours and 45 minutes to complete the test, not counting breaks.

Cactus Shadows High School in Cave Creek reported its students scores still averaged above the Arizona and national averages, but were lower than last year’s scores, said Jackie Beazley, director of assessment and accountability for the Cave Creek Unified School District.

Students last year scored on average 545 on the verbal section of the test compared to 526 this year, Beazley said. In the math portion, students this year scored an average 537 compared to 549 last year. In the writing section, students scored on average 510.

“I think we definitely want to look at the trends, if we see math scores drop lower than the state (scores),” Beazley said.

Deer Valley School District did not have their students’ scores available as of presstime.

The results come several months after numerous colleges reported surprisingly low SAT scores for this year’s incoming college freshmen. The nonprofit College Board, which had said scores would be down this year, released figures Aug. 29 showing combined critical reading and math skills fell seven points on average to 1021.

The average critical reading score fell from 508 to 503, while math dropped from 520 to 518. On the new SAT writing section, the class scored 497 on average, with girls scoring 11 points higher than boys.

In Arizona, students scored on average 526 last year in verbal compared to 521 this year, and in math 530 last year compared to 528 this year, Beazley said.

In addition to the new writing section, the exam taken by the class of 2006 had other new features, including higher‑level math and the elimination of analogies.

The College Board noted the drop in math scores amounts to one‑fifth of one test question, and the reading to one‑half of one question. But when analyzed after approximately 1.5 million test‑takers, such drops weigh in significantly, and this was the biggest year‑to‑year decline since the class of 1975.

The results come two weeks after it was announced the class of 2006 had posted the biggest score increase in 20 years on the rival ACT exam. The ACT, which is also accepted by nearly all colleges that require standardized tests, is generally more focused on material covered in high school classes than the SAT, which is more of a measure of general ability. But more students in traditional SAT states like Connecticut and New Jersey appear to be taking both exams to try to improve their applications to selective colleges.

The initial indication SAT scores were down this year prompted speculation that students may have been tiring out toward the end of the marathon exam.

Experts say the changeover in exams probably affected how students approached the test, and thus the scores.

Reporter Kathleen Stinson contributed to this story. She can be reached at: kathleen@thedesertadvocate.com.