Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994                   TAG: 9406140108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

GRADE INFLATION HITS SAT SCORES

Beginning in April 1995, the College Board will be recalibrating its scoring of the Scholastic Assessment Test, which will give higher scores for the same performance, The New York Times reported.

The top score will still be 800, and the low 200. But a student who this year scored, for example, 430 on the verbal section would earn a 510 by answering the same number of questions correctly next year.

This year's 730 would become a perfect 800.

Bradley J. Quin, a senior project director of the College Board, acknowledged the change would give rise to the question "Aren't you just making kids feel better by giving them higher scores?"

"The answer is absolutely, positively not," Quin told the Times. "The performance that generates a 424 today will now generate a 500. The kid is no brighter, doesn't have any more bright answers, it's just the label is higher. Everyone will know."

When the scoring system was established in 1941, 500 was the average score for both parts of the test, Quin said. Today, the average score on the verbal test is 424, while the average on the math is 478.

The scores have dropped because many more students, including many from disadvantaged backgrounds, take the test now, compared with the smaller, elite group of the '40s.

The College Board decided to "recenter" the scale so that the average will once again be 500 in verbal and math.

Typical students will now get about 80 extra points on the verbal and 20 on the math by correctly answering the same number of questions.

"This way a student will know if he gets a 510, he's a little above average," Quin said. "A 490's a little below average."

The first scoring change will come on the PSAT, which is taken by juniors as a warmup for the SAT. The change will be used for the SAT in April 1995.

The test, formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, is the most widely used college entrance exam.