“I can’t recall a time when it has ever happened.”
That’s what Lynnfield High Principal Robert Cleary had to say about the fact that the average SAT scores on both tests taken by last year’s senior class have dipped below the state averages.
The average score on the ERW test (Evidence-Based Reading and Writing) dropped from 599 in 2021 to 552 in 2022, 15 points below the state average of 567.
The average score on the Math exam dropped from 599 in 2021 to 560 in 2022, one point below the state average of 561.
Cleary said he thought there were a couple of factors in play to account for the drop.
“As we looked at this from year to year, you have to be careful because it’s a different group of kids,” he said at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting. “The odd part that surprised us is it wasn’t a surprise that our numbers went down, but if you look at those state numbers they were actually the same or a little higher. There is no explanation for that.”
“We’re not really sure what that is but it could be that a lot of kids from the state standpoint who aren’t high performers simply said ‘why am I going to take the SAT’ and simply decided not to take them depending on where they were going. Even so their numbers are pretty consistent in the prior years (state-wide). It’s more that we dropped a little more than we thought we might.”
While scores are down, Cleary said it hasn’t adversely affected students’ getting into their top choices.
“You look at the list of the places our students ended up and there wasn’t a huge dropoff,” he said. “Getting into great schools still went on and they are having wonderful experiences.”
One of the more puzzling aspects of the decline in SAT scores is the large gap in the 600-699 test range when compared to past years. Cleary said his best guess is that students are electing to skip taking the test because their schools are either test optional or have dropped the SAT requirement entirely.
Roughly the same number of students scored in the 700-plus range on the ERW test over the last three years with 13 in 2020 and 2022 and 11 in 2021. However in the 600-699 range, there were 55 students in 2019, 52 in 2020 and only 16 in 2021 and 29 in 2022.
In the 500-599 range, there were 63 students in 2019, 43 students in 2020, 21 in 2021 and 46 in 2022.
“What strikes you is that we had the same number of in that highest-performing level and then, for that 600-699 range you had 52 in 2020, (only 16 in 2021) and only 29 in 2022, but then dropped down the next few sections (500-599 and 400-499) and 2020 and 2022 are almost identical,” Cleary said. “We’re missing 20 kids in that 600-699 range. That’s why our best guess is that it’s not like they dropped down to the next level, because those numbers are pretty consistent; it’s more that students that didn’t need to take it said, ‘here I am coming out of COVID I just need to focus on different things. Why take it if I don’t need to.'”
Cleary said a similar trend occurred on the Math test with what he described as a “big drop” in the 600-699 range.
In 2019, 26 students scored 700 or more on the Math test, while in 2020 (the first COVID class), 2021 and 2022, only 13, 10 and 13 students, respectively scored in the same range.
Committee member Phil McQueen asked what the future may hold for the SAT.
Phil McQueen asked what the future holds for the SAT.
“Are they going to drop them?” McQueen asked.
Guidance Department Chair Kathryn Moody said, a couple of years ago when the SAT-optional trend was gaining traction, she just believed the trend would continue. But now she sees it differently.
“It’s coming back; they are making a comeback. There are about 25 absolutely solid schools right now that are absolutely requiring it. The Florida state system never dropped it. Georgia is now on board. The service academies sort of dropped it but not really and the NCAA had dropped it for athletes, but for some reason I think they might be bringing it back.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
