Delaware SAT scores lower

Delaware students did worse on this year’s SAT according to the latest results released today by the College Board.

This is the second year for the SAT to be administered to all 11th graders in Delaware public schools.  The program, called the Universal SAT, is being funded in part by the state’s Race to the Top grant.  

The Universal SAT was administered in April to nearly 8,000 Delaware students.  The mean scores were down compared to the Universal SAT administered to juniors in 2011.  The critical reading score went down from 436 last year to 425 this year.  Math scores were also down from 449 a year ago, to 435 this year.  Writing scores fell as well, down from 427 last year to 419 this year.

The results for all 2012 graduates who took the test during their high school careers were higher than the Universal SAT results, but the traditional SAT takers also scored below their counterparts from the class of 2011.  State education leaders say the number of students in the class of 2012 took the SAT, 9,838, was more than ever before in the stat’es history.  

They also say the 2012 class was the most diverse class to ever take the SAT.  Because of the big increase in the number of test takers, they say it’s not fair to compare the results of this year’s tests to last years and that they expecte the lower scores.

The mean score in critical reading for the class of 2012 was 456, that’s down from 489 for the class of 2011.  This year’s graduates scored 462 on mathematics, down from 490 for the class of 2011.  The writing scores were down too for this year’s students, at 444 compared to 476 for the class of 2011.