SATs up in verbal, Hawaii's college-bound public school students in the class of 2001 continued to improve on Scholastic Assessment Test verbal scores but dropped in math scores, according to results released today by the College Board.
but worse in math
Schools chief LeMahieu
calls the results 'encouraging'Star-Bulletin staff
Based on the report, verbal scores for public school students who took the SAT increased by two points to 463 this year from 461 last year, while math scores decreased to 488 from 491. Both scores, however, are below the national average.
Public school students' improvement on their verbal scores has continued to climb since 1998. "The continual gain in verbal scores is encouraging," said schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu. "We cannot be satisfied, though, until we narrow the gap with the national average in both verbal and math scores. Our current focus on standards will help us move in that direction."Marian Crislip, a test development specialist with the state Department of Education, said the College Board scores are consistent with recent SAT scores. "We're very pleased about that. It confirms twice over that we are doing some good things."
The separate Stanford Achievement Test scores show Hawaii's public school students are doing above average both in math and verbal areas, she said.
"I think this shows how important external measures are to confirming what is going on within the state. This will determine if we are being too local or not. We need to see ourselves across the nation as a whole, rather than isolated from that greater entity."
Crislip added that "many solid initiatives have started" to boost student ability in math and verbal areas but it takes three to eight years to achieve positive outcomes.
The combined College Board SAT score, which includes public, religious and independent schools, showed Hawaii students' overall score dropped in both math and verbal.
The combined average math score fell to 515 from 519 in 2000. The national math average has remained at 514.
The Hawaii combined average verbal score decreased to 486 from 488 in 2000, compared with the national average of 506, which increased from 505.
In religious schools, math scores fell to 546 from 553, while the verbal scores dropped to 523 from 528.
Scores for independent school students improved in math to 598 from 592, significantly exceeding the national average, but verbal scores dropped to 545 from 549.
In Hawaii, 52 percent of the class of 2001 completed the SAT, compared with 45 percent nationally. Among the 7,332 Hawaii students who took the test, 4,754 students were from public schools. A total of 1,276,320 students took the test nationally.
College and universities use results of the SAT as only an indicator to predict an individual student's potential for academic success in post-secondary institutions.
2000 SAT scores, school by school