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player ready...The average SAT score of high school students in Illinois rose slightly this year, outpacing national gains on both the verbal and math portions of the college entrance exam.
But in a disturbing and somewhat mysterious result, the verbal and math scores of Illinois’ Hispanic students dropped significantly after increasing the previous year. The Illinois results buck the national trend, which shows Latino test scores increasing across the country.
Educators say it is difficult to draw broad conclusions from the decline in Latino scores, since only 606 Hispanic students in Illinois took the exam. In addition, those 606 are not a widespread sampling, but a self-selected group of students, usually those aiming for admission into a particular kind of college.
But Robert Schiller, state superintendent of education, said he is concerned about the drop.
“I have to admit, I’m kind of perplexed by it and I can’t connect the dots on this one,” Schiller said. “It’s very possible that this is simply a one-year blip. There are so many variables that go into test scores. We simply don’t know what happened.”
Schiller suggested that the increase in the number of Latino students taking the exam–11 percent–might account for some of the decline.
He said Hispanic students are more likely than their white counterparts to have teachers who are not properly trained, and they are less likely to take the advanced placements courses that prepare them for the college entrance exams.
“The greatest challenge in Illinois and the rest of the nation is to ensure that all students are taking the types of challenging courses that prepare them for college and for life after college,” Schiller said. “But even if you have everything in place to make this happen, you are not going to see dramatic changes in one year. It will be a cumulative effect.”
The SAT is a college entrance exam taken by high school juniors and seniors across the country. The scores released Tuesday represent students who graduated from high school in 2004, regardless of when they took the test.
Though some students in every state take the test, it is most commonly taken by students in the northeastern states.
Only about 10 percent of Illinois graduating seniors took the SAT, compared with 48 percent nationally. The test is often required for admission to prestigious private colleges, especially on the East Coast.
Almost all Illinois students take the competing ACT, which is part of a state-mandated high school exam. On the ACT exam, the composite score for Hispanic students in Illinois was unchanged over the previous year.
Nationally, the average SAT verbal scores rose one point this year, while the math score fell one point, according to data released by the College Board. Hispanic students made gains of between one and four points.
Despite the gains, College Board officials pointed out the continuing pernicious gap between the scores of white and Asian-American students and those of black and Hispanic students. Overall, Asian-American students posted a combined score of 1,084; white students, 1,059; American Indians, 971; Hispanics, 916; and African-Americans, 857.
“We are particularly pleased with the progress we are seeing with Hispanics and the Mexican-American community; however, the achievement gap continues,” said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, during a news conference in Washington, D.C. “This shows a system of unequal education that affects the SAT scores but also high school grades and the ability to get into college and succeed.”
In Illinois, the overall verbal score jumped two points from 583 to 585 and the math score increased 1 point to 597. The test is scored on a 200 to 800 point scale.
The scores of Hispanic students dipped 8 points on the verbal exam, the only racial group to see a decline. The math scores dropped by 18 points.
On the positive side, Schiller pointed to the state’s performance on the rigorous Advanced Placement exams. More students took the exams than in past years and more of them scored in the highest ranges. About 73 percent of Illinois graduating seniors who took AP tests posted scores high enough to earn college credit.
“The AP scores are excellent,” Schiller said. “Now, we need to get more students into AP classes.”
On Tuesday, College Board officials also unveiled the changes that will be made to future SAT exams.
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Beginning in 2005 the SAT will no longer include the much-criticized verbal analogies, but it will include a writing component. It will feature a 25-minute written essay and multiple-choice grammar questions.
The change comes as Illinois lawmakers voted earlier this year to scrap the state’s writing exam as part of a cost-cutting effort.