City, county students improve SAT scores
Charlottesville and Albemarle County high school students showed significant gains on SAT exams this year, despite state and national declines.
“It’s definitely a success,” said Laurie McCullough, director of student achievement and program evaluation. “I think it’s a reflection of the high standards our teachers have and our community has for our kids.”
The average Charlottes-ville high school student scored 558 in critical reading in 2009 — 22 points better than last year.
Charlottesville students’ average math score increased 12 points over last year’s — to 528 — and writing scores jumped 14 points to 545.
Albemarle students also had big gains.
The typical Albemarle student’s critical reading score in 2009, 574, is a 21-point increase compared with 2008. Math and writing scores rose 24 and 26 points, respectively, to 570 and 556.
Luvelle Brown, the county school division’s chief information officer, attributes gains to students being challenged with more rigorous courses, as well as educators “encouraging critical thinking and problem solving, rather than test prep and memorization.”
The 2009 state average for critical reading was 511, the same as last year. Nationwide, critical reading scores dropped 6 points, to 496.
Average math scores in 2009 were 512 statewide and 515 nationwide, the same as 2008.
State and national writing scores each dropped one point below 2008 averages, to 498 and 493 respectively.
The maximum possible score for each section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test is 800, for a combined total of 2,400.
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Reader Reactions
Very good point D. It is too bad reporters too often become pawns of our corrupt school and government administrators. If only the truth be known and hard questions asked.
Laurie McCullough and Luvelle Brown should know better….the SAT is a largely worthless test that doesn’t measure anything of consequence except for family income. SAT test scores have nothing to do with “high standards” or teachers encouraging students to engage in “critical thinking” ot “problem solving.“
In fact, the SAT is mostly unrelated to the high school curriculum.
It really is sad that highly placed educators continue to mislead the public about the meaning of SAT scores. The reporter, Brandon Shulleeta, should also do his homework. Shulleeta calls the SAT gains, “significant,“ but the gains are only - on average - about .15 of a standard deviation. Not stratospheric.
Moreover, there’s a strong possibility that the gains come from SAT prep…indeed, more and more students are taking SAT prep classes through the large myriad companies that provide them locally…..and they work.
The Washington Post just reported on this very phenomenon on Monday, September 14:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/sat-and-act/spotlight-the-man-who-takes-sa.html
It is clearly worth considering the perception of the expert who “coaches” the SAT.
For more, Google “The Best Class Money Can Buy,“ by Matthew Quirk in the 2005 Atlantic…..it is a riveting read that puts the SAT in its place.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/financial-aid-leveraging
Educational leaders should be honest and not MISlead their school divisions, and the public.
We already have enough mistrust in government.
I thought the county mastered the fine art of teaching to the test? Have they changed gears in eleventh grade to teaching to the SAT’s?
Also what exactly is a “chief information officer”? Is that a new way of masking an administration position? What happen to the community relations manager?
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