On its surface, the headline could appear alarming: “SAT reading scores hit lowest level on record.”
That was in Thursday’s edition of The Columbian, above a story that explained how reading scores had dipped in the widely taken test — which is designed to measure a student’s preparedness for college — and how combined math and reading scores were at their lowest point since 1995.
Certainly a matter for concern, but not a matter for panic.
As the article also explained, The College Board, which owns and administers the test, said that a record number of students in the high school Class of 2011 had taken the exam. The College Board also explained that the pool of test-takers reflected increasing diversity.
Being the types to search for a silver lining, we think this is good news. For the most part, students take the SAT only if they are thinking of attending college. And the fact that the pool of test-takers is growing is a sign that more students than ever are viewing higher education as an important part of a successful future, despite the barriers posed by a stumbling economy.
For example, according to The College Board, 27 percent of the 1.65 million test-takers last year came from a home where English was not the only language. A decade ago, that number was 19 percent.
Whether a student is from an immigrant family or can trace their immigration to the Mayflower or are Native American, the important thing is that college not be seen as an unreachable beacon reserved only for a certain socioeconomic class.
That doesn’t mean that higher education is the right path for everybody. Many a successful career has been built without the benefit of college, and continuing education is not necessarily the proper fit for every student coming out of high school. But it does mean that the notion that graduates have options, that they can choose the path they wish to pursue, that they can envision improving their lot in life remains a crucial part of the American dream.
For their part, students in Washington scored extremely well on the SAT. Among states in which more than half the eligible students took the exam, Washington students had the highest combined scores in the three disciplines — reading, writing, and math. Washington students had the nation’s best scores in math and tied for first in reading with New Hampshire. They were fourth in writing.
We’ll chalk this up to the emphasis that our state places on education and the excellent schools that we have created, being ever mindful that such excellence requires diligence to remain at that elite level.
Yet while there is that silver lining in the release of the test results, the declining scores are cause for some concern. As Gary Phillips, chief scientist of the American Institutes of Research cautioned, “Based on the international comparisons, however, we’re still not doing all that well.”
That should be a clarion call for the American educational system. With the increasing globalization of world markets, it’s not enough to compare our students to American students of the past. The students of today will be entering a world in which they must compete on a global level, and how they fare will determine whether the United States remains at the forefront of the world’s economy.
In South Korea, for example, a $2 billion project has students ditching textbooks in favor of tablet computers such as the iPad. France, Singapore, Japan and other countries also are racing to create classrooms where touchscreens provide instant access to millions of pieces of information.
It’s the brave new world of education. And the manner in which the United States responds to this changing landscape will, in the long run, be more important than any test scores.
