Vittorio Hernandez

 

Washington, D.C.

The declining quality of basic education in the U.S. was confirmed once again with the release on Wednesday by the College Board of graduating high school seniors SAT scores.

Lower average scores were registered for reading, writing and math, but it was in reading where the drop was biggest at three points, which caused the average to go down to a 40-year low of 497.

The decrease in writing score was two points to an average of 489 and in math by one point to 514.

The College Board, which administers the test as a required for college admission, explained the drop in average scores to English not being the only language at home among 27 percent of the 1.65 million students who took the SAT in 2010. In 2001, the percentage who came from such homes was only 19 percent.

In some areas, such as Washington's Montgomery and Prince William counties, the drop was in the double-digits, which bothered educators from those areas.

Students from Fairfax Country suffered a 10-point decline in average SAT score to 1,654, those from Prince Williams logged an 18-point drop to 1,490 and those from Montgomery registered a 16-point reduction to 1,637.

Each subject has a maximum score of 800 and an overall score of 2,400.

The lower SAT scores came out despite major efforts exerted by schools to boost results under the 2002 No Child Left Behind law. Critics of testing blamed the intense focus on state reading and math exams which affected higher-order thinking skills of the examinees.

Wayne Camara, vice president for research and development of the College Board, said the consistent gaps among ethnic groups such as blacks, Hispanics or American Indians who registered lower scores than whites and Asians are indicators of lack of access to quality education for members of these groups.

The College Board administered the SAT for the first time in 1926 with 8,040 examinees.

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Copyright © 2011 Arianna Huffington. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc.

 

 

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SAT Reading Scores Lowest in 40 Years