EDUCATION

SAT scores don't keep pace with grad rates

Linda Borg
lborg@providencejournal.com

This story has been updated to reflect to correct scores of Rhode Island students

PROVIDENCE — Why do so many high schools post strong graduation rates when their SAT scores fall far below proficiency?

It's not just the urban districts who post wide gaps between grad rates and SAT performance.

Burrillville had an 83 percent graduation rate for the class of 2018, but only 37 percent of its students met or exceeded expectations on the math SAT, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Johnston posted a 92 percent graduation rate, but only 20 percent of its students met "college or career ready" standards on the math SAT.

Educators say there are several reasons for the disparities.

First, Rhode Island is one of only 11 states that requires all high school students to take the PSAT and the SAT, which has led to big jumps in student participation rates but also lowers the overall performance because more students are taking the test.

In Maine, which also demands that all students sit for the SAT, more than 50 percent of students met or exceeded expectations on the SAT in math and English.

Rhode Island students scored only 31 percent proficient or above in math and 41 percent in English. There is an important caveat, however: Rhode Island has significantly more students from low-income families and more English language learners than Maine.

In some states, like Massachusetts, only college-going students take the SAT, which leads to higher overall scores.

In the Bay State, more than 60 percent of students scored proficient on the SAT — about twice as high as they did in Rhode Island. But only 81 percent of high school graduates took the test, a much smaller percentage than in Rhode Island. More importantly, in Massachusetts, very few students of color signed up.

"We forget that a lot of middle-and upper-class students went through a lot of test prep," said Ken Wong, director of urban education at Brown University. "When they are sitting in the test room, they already know what kinds of tasks they are being asked to do. We need to think about building support like that in public schools.

"On the other hand, students know that they are not being held accountable when they take the SAT," he said of Rhode Island. "It's not a high-stakes test for them. It's important for the districts and the commissioner to communicate why this is important, that it's clearly connected to college and career readiness."

That's one of the reasons why former Commissioner of Education Ken Wagner in 2016 replaced the immensely unpopular New England Common Assessment with the SAT as part of the state's graduation requirements. After huge pushback from parents about tying graduation to passing the NECAP, the state wanted to adopt a less controversial test that everyone was familiar with.

Meanwhile, more selective colleges are dropping the SAT as an admission requirement because they recognize that students are more than a single test score and because research has shown that high school performance is a much better indicator of how well students do in college.

"Most kids in the South, West and Midwest take the ACT because they aren't applying to elite schools," said Tim Ryan, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of Superintendents. "The kids who do take it do so because they are applying to elite schools."

According to Ryan, there is also a strong negative correlation between SAT performance and poverty. In fact, critics of the SAT say its questions favor students who are white and middle class.

Rhode Island superintendents also say that a standardized test measures only one moment in time, whereas graduation rates reflect a student's four years of effort, including written work, in-school tests, advanced placement classes and technical school skills.

"I'm not a proponent of relying on just one test to assess the ability of students to graduate," said Supt. Kathy Crowley of East Providence. 

That said, Crowley finds the low achievement on the SAT, where only 16 percent of students met expectations in math, disturbing.

lborg@providencejournal.com

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