ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Today's college-bound seniors have nearly achieved the average math score rung up by students in the early 1970s, but verbal scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test still remain well below those of 25 years ago.
Some critics say the test is not a fair indicator of how students, especially women and minorities, will do in their first year of college. Others question the results because of recent changes in format and scoring.
Overall, the slightly higher scores reflect more students taking honors courses and classes in calculus, chemistry and physics, according to the College Board, which administers the nation's main college-entrance exam.
Test results released Thursday continue to show men outperforming women. While the women's average verbal score of 503 was only four points behind, their average math score of 492 trailed the male average by 35 points.
``The gap is narrowing slightly. While women are taking more science and more math courses, they haven't closed the gap yet,'' said Gretchen Rigol, the board's director of admission and guidance services.
More than 1 million students took the SAT this year. The average math score was 508, up from 506 in 1995 and just one point behind the 1972 average math score of 509. Virginia students' scores improved from from 494 in 1995 to 496 this year.
Nationally, the average verbal score was 505, up from 504 last year but still 25 points below the 1972 average of 530. Virginia scores improved from 504 last year to 507.
Christopher Cross, president of the Council for Basic Education, a Washington-based organization that advocates rigorous liberal arts education, said students are not asked to write enough - not only in English class, but in other classes too.
``Even though the [verbal] score has come back a point, I suspect we will never regain the level we achieved at the high point in 1972,'' Cross said.
College Board President Donald Stewart said he was puzzled about why verbal scores remained below 1970s levels. He speculated that students are watching more television, reading less and spending less time studying English.
This year's test-takers who had taken four years of English had an average verbal score of 512, while those with three years of English scored 40 points lower.
This year's scores are the first to be reported on the SAT's recentered score scale, designed to raise the average score back to 500 and make the scores more statistically sound. Comparison scores also were converted to the new scale.
But Jeanne Allen, director of the Center for Education Reform, said the SAT has been rendered useless as a barometer of college freshmen performance because of the change in scoring and 1994 revisions that gave students more time on some parts, let them use calculators and dropped testing on antonyms.
Education Secretary Richard Riley was encouraged by the upward trend of the test results.
``SAT scores have come to be seen as a measure of the nation's educational health,'' Riley said. ``This year's annual checkup: Pulse is strong, but sustained vigorous exertion required.''
However, Robert Cohen, president of the New York-based Princeton Review, dismissed the results.
``SAT scores don't tell us anything about American education,'' Cohen said.
Students from higher-income families often do better on the test because ``the language of the SAT is upper-middle class,'' he said. Higher test scores might actually mean that fewer low-income students, who often are members of minorities, are taking the test because they cannot afford to go to college, he said.
College Board officials denied that the test was geared toward white students from upper-income families.
However, Pamela Zappardino of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing in Cambridge, Mass., said research underscores a gender bias in the SAT. Despite earning better marks in high school and college, girls continue to receive lower SAT scores, she said.
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