Hawaii below
average on SAT
But isle private school
students have outdone
their mainland peers
SAT scores for college-bound students in Hawaii's private, independent schools slipped this year but still far outpaced public school scores, which held steady or improved slightly over last year, according to data released today.
Hawaii's overall state score for both public and private schools was 514 in math and 487 in verbal on the 2004 College Board SAT, out of a possible of 800 points on each. That compares with a national average of 518 in math and 508 in verbal. Both sets of scores changed little over the last year.
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While Hawaii's public school students fell well below their counterparts nationally on both parts of the test, private school students here exceeded their private school peers nationally in math but trailed them verbally.
Hawaii's public school students gained two points on the verbal portion of the test, scoring 464 this year, up from 462, while math scores for that group remained steady at 489. That compares with a national average for public school students of 505 on the verbal test and 515 on the math, which represented a one-point gain in verbal and a one-point drop in math.
"We are encouraged that test scores for college-bound public school students are improving," Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said. "We are also pleased that a large percentage of public school students are taking the SAT and exploring their options for post-secondary education."
Meanwhile, students at private, independent schools in Hawaii dropped five points in math from last year, to 592, and fell three points on the verbal, to 545. Religious schools in Hawaii saw their math scores drop two points to 545 while improving their verbal score by one point to 523.
Nationally, both independent and religious schools improved their math and verbal performance over last year, with the biggest jump coming in verbal scores for independent schools, to 555 from 550.
"The variation in SAT scores for Hawaii independent schools is probably not that significant when one considers the range of performance over the past five or so years," said Robert Witt, executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. "We believe that our students have consistently done quite well."
"More important to independent school parents, teachers and students is the awareness that college admissions is about much, much more than test scores," he added.
Even with the slippage locally, independent Hawaii schools still outscored their private school counterparts nationally in math at 592 compared with 574. On the verbal test, independent schools in Hawaii scored 10 points below their peers across the country, at 545 compared with 555.
Religious schools in Hawaii also did relatively well in math. Their average math score was 545, compared with 531 nationally for religious schools. Their verbal score of 523 fell well short of the national religious verbal score of 537.
In Hawaii, 60 percent of the Class of 2004 took the SAT, up from 54 percent last year. Nationally, 48 percent of this year's graduates took the test.
Generally speaking, scores tend to decline with a rise in percentage of test takers. Officials advise against using SAT scores to compare states because the percentage of test takers varies widely across the country.
Compared with five years ago, Hawaii public school scores have increased six points in verbal and three points in math, while independent schools have gone up two points on verbal and dropped four points in math, and religious schools have gone up two points in verbal and one point in math.
The overall score for public and private school students in Hawaii has climbed 10 points in each subject during the last decade, while nationally the verbal score has gone up nine points and math has increased 14 points.
