Idaho seniors who took the SAT scored slightly lower and met fewer college readiness benchmarks than the class of 2018.
Data released by the The College Board this week shows Idaho’s most recent group of seniors had an average composite score of 993 out of 1600 possible, or about 8 points lower than the year prior. While the decreases are small, it 2019 marks the second year in a row scores have fallen.
The slight dip follows a national trend, as the U.S. average was 1059 points this year, down nine points from the 2018 average.
The College Board also establishes a benchmark for “college and career readiness” on the math and evidence-based reading and writing portions of the SAT. If a student meets benchmarks in math or language, the board estimates that student is about 75 percent likely to score a “C” or better in a first-semester college course.
Some 58 percent of 2019 Idaho graduates met the college and career readiness benchmark in reading and writing, compared to 60 percent in 2018, while 34 percent met the math benchmark, down one percentage point. About 32 percent of students met benchmarks in both math and language sections, and 40 percent of students met neither benchmark, up from slightly from a year ago.
While Idaho’s composite score ranked just 45th in the nation, across-the-board comparisons are taken with a grain of salt, as the rankings include states like Idaho where nearly every student takes the SAT, and those with far lower participation rates, of which the testing cohort tends to skew towards higher-achieving, college-bound students. (IdahoEdNews.org)
