2012 SAT Reading Scores Lowest Since 1972

NPR's Claudio Sanchez brings us this bit of bad academic news: The class of 2012 scored the lowest average SAT reading score since 1972. A bit of good news is that math scores were up.

Claudio filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Writing, too, is down nine points since the SAT introduced a writing section in 2006. The average score in math was 514 out of 800, five points higher than it was 40 years ago.
"Just under 1.7 million high school seniors took the test. Nearly half were racial or ethnic minorities. A fourth did not grow up speaking English at home. Asians outscored White, Black and Latinos. But overall, according to the College Board which commissions the SAT's, 6 in ten test takers are not prepared for college level work. Experts say this is a clear indication that academically, high schools are just not rigorous enough."

In a press release, College Board President Gaston Caperton said these scores should be a "call to action to expand access to rigor for more students."

"Our nation's future depends on the strength of our education system. When less than half of kids who want to go to college are prepared to do so, that system is failing," he said.

And, as we've reported, this kind of news just keeps coming. In Sept. 2011, we reported that the reading scores were already in bad shape then. And, last month, we reported that according to the ACT , just "25 percent of high schoolers who took the test are college ready."

"If you have conduct issues in a parochial school, the public school must be a combat zone."

Most of the kids are refugees from the public schools, so it carries over. The school system is so short of money due to legal costs and declining enrollment that they are reluctant to expel students who probably should be expelled. It's not fair to the kids who are there to learn. There is administrative support at my school, but we are asked to work incrementally in addressing the problem children, so it will take some time to sort out some of the issues. You can be sure I'm documenting a lot of what is going on. I spend way too much time on writing up infractions and monitoring detentions when I should be teaching.

I wouldn't consider working in our urban public school system. It's not worth the risk. There aren't enough security officers (money) and the administration is notorious for not backing teachers in disciplinary matters. It's really tough for the public schools to get rid of troublemakers, and they have a boatload of them.

"By 2019 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities as classified by the USG. Blacks and Hispanics have the highest school drop out rates. They also have the highest out of wedlock birthrates, 71% and 50% respectively. Is it any wonder that national SAT reading scores are down? "

We have a lot of immigrant families in our school 'family'. I don't know the statistics, but many of them are from Africa, especially Eritrea lately. My experience with them is that many of the immigrant students work their backsides off, and they are seldom my troublemakers. The problems are usually with the kids whose families have lived here for generations, and who have become part of that troubled urban minority culture. The Hispanic students are a mixed bag. Most of them don't cause me trouble apart from the girls being very sociable and chatty in class. Some of them lack language skills, which may reflect not speaking English at home and among friends.

"Yep, I teach eighth graders. If I had my way - we’d spend all our time reading and getting the kids to read quickly and well. Most have difficulty reading."

We're spending 3 weeks on introductory chapters in our science classes. They should take about a week. I suspect a large number of the kids will fail the chapter test on Thursday. There simply aren't enough days in the year to teach at this pace. For our next chapter, I'm considering reading the chapter aloud in class and pulling it apart as we go. Asking them to read seems fruitless for all but the honors students. They need to practice, but even with all the pre-reading exercises and supplementary worksheets, many just aren't getting it. They copy homework off their buddies at lunch, skip the reading, and think they can get by with hearing a little bit of stuff in class. It just doesn't cut it in science. I understand now why this science position has been a revolving door for years. Trying to teach the freshmen and sophomores their required science component is very challenging on every level.

Some of them lack language skills, which may reflect not speaking English at home and among friends.

If you live around them like I do you will revise your statement to read:

“Some of them lack language skills, which will reflect the fact that they ALWAYS speak Spanish at home and among friends and have no inclination to assimilate into the American society.”

IMO poor reading and math pedagogy are sabotaging the learning of other than the top quartile of our children, who can figure things out for themselves. (A swarm of nuns teaching phonics could have given most of those kids you are seeing a sound reading foundation by the third grade.)

However, the low performance of the majority of students helps to pull down the standards and expectations for all, which contributes to a lower level of learning for nearly all students.

“Normed”, eh?

“Idiocracy”, here we come.

Seriously, though, the dumbing down is intentional, but don’t forget the training of “elites”.

Those kids that “stand out” from the crowd will be selected for special indoctrination in elitist thinking and will actually be educated to be part of the power structure.

Anecdotal information is not indicative of what is happening in this country. The nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 40 million in 2010, the highest number in our history. The U.S. immigrant population has doubled since 1990, nearly tripled since 1980, and quadrupled since 1970, when it stood at 9.7 million. Of the 40 million immigrants in the country in 2010, 13.9 million arrived in 2000 or later making it the highest decade of immigration in American history, even though there was a net loss of jobs during the decade. Growth in the immigrant population has primarily been driven by high levels of legal immigration. Roughly three-fourths of immigrants in the country are here legally. With nearly 12 million immigrants, Mexico was by far the top immigrant-sending country, accounting for 29 percent of all immigrants and 29 percent of growth in the immigrant population from 2000 to 2010.

We are creating a permanent underclass in this country primarily populated by blacks and Hispanics. And they just happen to be the fast growing segment of the population. US competitiveness in the global economy will continue to decline and we have a growing dependence upon government. 57% of immigrant headed households with children are on at least one major welfare program.

In the local school district, all kids have to take the SATs. All of them.

if this is common practice, then no wonder the scores are in the toilet.

The SATs need to be reserved for likly four-year college applicants.

When I was young only the kids with college aspirations took it.

Comparing apples and oranges.

I wonder why the Education Establishment are doing this?

Perhaps to make the SAT useless.

Sit down - invest the time if you can get it done - see if you can’t have the folks that need help start earlier or late.

Otherwise it just ends up having to be the college students who flunk out that you spend time teaching reading. I did that for years. At least I’m a history teacher and I can justify it.

If you spend a month on nothing but reading - the kids will end up progressing faster once they get over the hump. Please trust me on this.

"If you spend a month on nothing but reading - the kids will end up progressing faster once they get over the hump. Please trust me on this."

I'm already planning on beefing up the literacy side of my lessons. I can't skip science for a month, but I will look at some ways to help them with their science reading. I'm coaching them on how to read a textbook, using the headings, drilling vocab, etc. I can see I'll need to do more of that, as well as spending more time on reviewing homework. There is a lot that they just don't understand.

I ask for student volunteers to read aloud when we have a class prayer before every lesson. It gives me insight into their reading levels. Very sad in many cases.

I teach history and I’ve tutored Chemistry, Physics, Math, Biology, etc.

I spend most of my time drilling vocabulary and teaching my students Greek and Latin. That’s what they used to do for scientists back in the day. Far from it being a ‘dead’ or ‘useless’ language - you can’t really understand science without being able to break down the terms.

I have some materials if you want/need some help with this. Good luck. Keep fighting the good fight. I had quite a few skeptical parents my first year - but after the end of the year - I had enough converts that they’ve left me alone since.

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