From: "Raymond Daye" To: "Public Agenda Education" Subject: Reading test results (SAT and ACT) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 12:56:49 -0500 Dear Listmates: In response to Curt's request for an article on SAT results, allow me to share my as-yet-unprinted treatment of that issue. It will probably appear in a future edition of our employee newsletter Rapport. Please excuse the crooked table legs. I'm not much of a computer-carpenter. -- Raymond READING TEST RESULTS In 1998, Louisiana&rsqu;fs average combined SAT score was 1,120 &ndas;f 562 on verbal and 558 in math. The national average was 512 on verbal and 505 on math. I don&rsqu;ft recall any big headlines noting that Louisiana was ahead of such heavy-hitters as Connecticut (1,019), Massachusetts (1,016), New Hampshire (1,043), California (1,013), New York (998), Rhode Island (996), Virginia (1,006), Texas (995). In fact, Louisiana was tied for 14th with Alabama and Mississippi in the verbal score and tied for 13th with Alabama in the math score. Alabama and Louisiana are tied for 15th place in combined SAT scores. The reason why so little attention is given to Louisiana&rsqu;fs SAT scores, reporters will correctly tell you, is because so few Bayou State students take the test. Generally speaking, only the top students in our state &ndas;f those seeking specific major scholarships or hoping to attend colleges outside of the state which require SAT -- take the SAT. In 1998, 8% of Louisiana high school graduating seniors took the SAT &ndas;f the same as in Alabama but twice the rate of Mississippi. Nationwide, more than 40% of the seniors took the SAT. Meanwhile, in the cited examples, there were participation rates of 80% in Connecticut, 77% in Massachusetts, 74% in New Hampshire, 47% in California, 76% in New York, 72% in Rhode Island, 66% in Virginia and 51% in Texas. I will concede it isn&rsqu;ft fair to compare our top 8% with a state where 80% of its students took the test. Which brings us to the ACT and the consistently bold headlines that Louisiana falls at or near the bottom &ndas;f trailing all but four of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. We can be thankful for D.C. (17.6), Mississippi (18.7) and the Carolinas (South 19.0, North 19.4). Yes, Louisiana at 19.5 is dismally behind Connecticut (21.8), Massachusetts (21.6), New Hampshire (22.5), California (21.2), New York (22.0), Rhode Island (22.2), Virginia (20.7) and Texas (20.3). We are below the national average of 21.0 and the local media is not shy about telling us how justifiably ashamed of ourselves we should be. What is not included in the headlines nor even buried somewhere in the text of these comparative slaps in the face are the facts that Louisiana had 76% of its graduating seniors taking the ACT and Mississippi had 81%. D.C. and the Carolinas are actually SAT states, so I have no idea why they did so poorly on the ACT, except to note they also did very poorly on the SAT. Meanwhile, in the aforementioned group of examples, ACT participation levels were: 3% in Connecticut, 5% in Massachusetts, 4% in New Hampshire, 12% in California, 15% in New York, 2% in Rhode Island, 6% in Virginia and 32% in Texas. In the SAT rankings, the top 21 states all have less than 15% of their seniors taking that test. In fact, 13 have less than 10% participation. The lowest percentage of participation in the bottom 10 is Texas at 51%. In the ACT, the results aren&rsqu;ft as sensitive to level of participation. In the top 21 states, 10 have less than 20% participation with 6 having less than 10%. Meanwhile, three of the bottom 10 have less than 15% participation &ndas;f D.C. at 10%, South Carolina at 14% and North Carolina at 12%. The few things both lists have in common is that Iowa is at or near the top (1st in SAT and 7th in ACT), Minnesota is near the top (3rd in SAT, 5th in ACT) and Wisconsin is near the top (4th in SAT and 4th in ACT) while North Carolina is near the bottom (48th in SAT and 48th in ACT), South Carolina is at or near the bottom (51st in SAT and 49th in ACT) and D.C. is at or near the bottom (50th in SAT and 51st in ACT). 1998 SAT Iowa 593 601 1,194 5% North Dakota 590 599 1,189 5% Minnesota 585 598 1,183 9% Wisconsin 581 594 1,175 7% Kansas 582 585 1,167 13% South Dakota 584 581 1,165 5% Illinois 564 581 1,155 13% Missouri 570 573 1,143 8% Utah 572 570 1,142 4% Nebraska 565 571 1,136 8% Oklahoma 568 564 1,132 8% Michigan 558 569 1,127 11% Arkansas 568 555 1,123 6% Tennessee 564 557 1,121 13% Alabama 562 558 1,120 8% Louisiana 562 558 1,120 8% Mississippi 562 549 1,111 4% New Mexico 554 551 1,105 12% Kentucky 547 550 1,097 13% Wyoming 548 546 1,094 10% Idaho 545 544 1,089 16% Montana 543 546 1,089 24% Colorado 537 542 1,079 31% Ohio 536 540 1,076 24% Oregon 528 528 1,056 53% Arizona 525 528 1,053 32% Washington 524 526 1,050 53% N.Hampshire 523 520 1,043 74% Alaska 521 520 1,041 52% West Virginia 525 513 1,038 18% Nevada 510 513 1,023 33% Connecticut 510 509 1,019 80% Massachusetts 508 508 1,016 77% New Jersey 497 508 1,015 79% Maryland 506 508 1,014 65% California 497 516 1,013 47% Vermont 508 504 1,012 71% Virginia 507 499 1,006 66% Maine 504 501 1,005 68% Florida 500 501 1,001 52% New York 495 503 998 76% Indiana 497 500 997 59% Hawaii 483 513 996 55% Rhode Island 501 495 996 72% Texas 494 501 995 51% Delaware 501 493 994 70% Pennsylvania 497 495 992 71% North Carolina 490 492 982 62% Georgia 486 482 968 64% D.C. 488 476 964 83% South Carolina 478 473 951 61% 1998 ACT Oregon 22.7 12% Washington 22.6 18% N.Hampshire 22.5 4% Wisconsin 22.3 66% Minnesota 22.2 63% Rhode Island 22.2 2% Iowa 22.1 65% Maine 22.0 4% New York 22.0 15% Vermont 22.0 7% Montana 21.9 56% Connecticut 21.8 3% Nebraska 21.8 71% Kansas 21.7 74% Colorado 21.6 63% Hawaii 21.6 18% Massachusetts 21.6 5% Utah 21.6 68% Idaho 21.5 63% Missouri 21.5 66% Arizona 21.4 29% Illinois 21.4 69% Indiana 21.4 20% Nevada 21.4 43% North Dakota 21.4 78% Ohio 21.4 60% Pennsylvania 21.4 7% South Dakota 21.4 70% Wyoming 21.4 65% Alaska 21.3 37% Delaware 21.3 4% Michigan 21.3 68% California 21.2 12% Maryland 20.9 10% Florida 20.8 39% New Jersey 20.7 4% Virginia 20.7 6% Oklahoma 20.5 69% Arkansas 20.4 68% Texas 20.3 32% Georgia 20.2 16% Kentucky 20.2 67% Alabama 20.1 64% New Mexico 20.1 65% West Virginia 20.1 60% Tennessee 19.8 77% Louisiana 19.5 76% North Carolina 19.4 12% South Carolina 19.0 14% Mississippi 18.7 81% D.C. 17.6 10% ===================================================================== EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE networking and information for parents and taxpayers on the internet Subscriptions & Archives: http://education-consumers.com or You are currently subscribed to education-consumers as: arthurhu@halcyon.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank email to leave-education-consumers-989462S@lists.dundee.net ===================================================================== For less mail, click on the following link and choose 1) a daily digest, 2) a daily list of subjects, or 3) no mail (read postings on Web) http://lists.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=education-consumers For more help & info: http://www.lyris.com/help or . +OK 3353 octets Received: from smtp02.nwnexus.com (smtp02.nwnexus.com [198.137.231.18]) by mail3.halcyon.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA19140 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 20:51:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from minglewood.dundee.net (minglewood.dundee.net [206.249.104.16]) by smtp02.nwnexus.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id UAA25170 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 20:51:02 -0700 Message-Id: X-Authentication-Warning: athena.louisville.edu: Host ppp0161.remote.louisville.edu [136.165.221.62] claimed to be gkcunn01.louisville.edu Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 23:50:38 -0400 To: "ClearingHouse" From: "George K. Cunningham" Subject: [education-consumers] Re: Reading test results (SAT and ACT) In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Reply-To: "George K. Cunningham" Precedence: bulk Status: ===================================================================== NEW: To send mail to ClearingHouse subscribers: ===================================================================== At 05:03 PM 4/16/99 +0100, a not was forwarded from Raymond Daye: I am not going to reprint the note because presumably you all received it and it is long. In the note he points out the interesting and well known phenomenon that states that primarily use the ACT have very high SAT averages because only their best students take the test. The ACT is given in the middle of the country and the SAT is used on the coasts. The few students who take the SAT in ACT states are headed for the more selective schools of the coasts. It is less well known and was pointed out that the same trend does not hold for the ACT. Some of the states with the fewest students taking the ACT also have the lowest scores. It has been speculated that counselors direct students to take the ACT so that they can get admitted to schools in the midwest that are less selective. Before anyone gets upset I know there are selective schools in the midwest and bad schools on the coasts. We are talking about general trends. Does someone have a better explanation? George Cunningham Professor University of Louisville ===================================================================== EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE networking and information for parents and taxpayers on the internet Subscriptions & Archives: http://education-consumers.com or You are currently subscribed to education-consumers as: arthurhu@halcyon.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank email to leave-education-consumers-989462S@lists.dundee.net ===================================================================== For less mail, click on the following link and choose 1) a daily digest, 2) a daily list of subjects, or 3) no mail (read postings on Web) http://lists.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=education-consumers For more help & info: http://www.lyris.com/help or .