SAT Scores Are Up for County’s High School Students

San Diego County’s high school students in 1989 made gains on both the verbal and mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the well-known, three-hour multiple-choice test that measures a student’s level of academic preparation.

The figures, being released throughout the United States today, show the average total score was 924 for the 8,036 San Diego County students who took the SAT this year, a four-point gain from 1988 and a 12-point rise since 1983, when school improvement efforts got under way in a major way, both locally and nationwide. The highest possible test score is 1,600; the lowest possible is 200.

The gains are considered significant, in large part because an increasing number of students--30% more than in 1983--are now taking the SAT, Tom Boysen, superintendent of the county Office of Education, said Monday. Usually, there is a drop in scores when more students take the test because the larger number means those with lower grade-point averages are participating, he said.

“Straight-A students always take the SAT,” Boysen said, referring to countywide data that shows the highest scores among those with A averages. “In San Diego County, increasing numbers of B and C students are also taking the test . . . and I am very pleased that we’re still making substantial progress.”

Ethnic Breakdowns Show Some Lags

Boysen said that there were some gains by all major ethnic groups, although the scores of black, Latino and Asian-American students still lag behind those of white students. “The trend is up, and that’s encouraging.”

Among county students taking the test, 62% were white, 17% Asian-American, 12% Latino and 5% black. Whites averaged 974, Asian-Americans 866, Latinos 832 and blacks 774.

Many colleges and universities use the test results as a measure of a student’s potential for doing satisfactory work at their institutions, and athletes must score a minimum 700 to participate in intercollegiate sports.

Nationally, average scores showed little change, with the combined average dropping 1 point to 903. In California, there was a 2-point drop to 906.

But, after a decade of steady gains, average SAT scores among women and several minority groups slipped last year.

Critics for years have accused the SAT of being biased against women and minorities, and the latest averages again displayed a wide race and gender gap. White students gained two points on their combined SAT scores to 937--averaging fully 200 points higher than blacks whose math-verbal scores were unchanged from the previous year at 737.

Women’s combined scores dipped two points to 875; male test-takers averaged 934, one point higher than a year earlier.

The president of the College Board, the New-York based association that administers the test, said Monday that the general trend for all ethnic groups has been upward since 1985.

Donald M. Stewart said that “inequities still exist in the educational opportunities available to students. College Board research reveals a strong relationship between the strength of a student’s high school preparation and his or her test scores. That’s why we believe that score differences among ethnic groups and between men and women reflect wide disparities in academic preparation--or lack of it.”

Connection to Courses Taken in School

A new analysis comparing the academic workload of students and SAT scores shows that, for example, students taking high school physics score considerably above the national verbal and math average scores.

“It’s interesting to note that 74% of Asian-Americans had four or more years of math in high school, and their average math scores were the highest by far, 525,” Robert G. Cameron College Board research and development executive director, said. “And nearly twice the percentage of Asian-American students than black or Mexican-American students took a physics course--63% to 32%.”

Cameron said also that there is a strong relationship between “the amount and type of academic courses taken in high school and average SAT scores.”

Cameron has said that math scores might be more easily bolstered by classroom performance, since most students learn their math in school, and, as a result, stronger curricula could translate more directly into improved achievement.

However, verbal skills in reading and writing also depend on influences outside the classroom and are harder to improve, given the video and pop culture so pervasive in American society, research has shown.