Whew, all this political craziness stuff, plus some doings at work have had me neglecting my blogging this week. So I’m just now combing through my feed reader, reading old newspapers, and formulating some posts for the coming days.
And what was one of the first things to catch my eye? Why, this story in the Post: County’s SAT Scores Fall Again as Racial Gap Grows.
The latest SAT report from Montgomery County brims with bad news. Scores are down. The achievement gap that separates whites and Asians from blacks and Hispanics is growing.
A smaller share of high school students is taking the test. The county’s competitive position against the likes of Howard and Fairfax counties is slipping.
If there’s any consolation in the latest scores, it may be that students are defecting to the rival ACT in such numbers as to suggest the SAT matters somewhat less to Montgomery seniors and their parents than it did a few years ago. For many parents, however, the SAT average remains the ultimate measure of a high school.
Contrast that with the cheerful spin offered by MCPS, as pointed out in my recent post, Pay Not Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain. (Dan, are you a reader?) The Post article shows the superintendent grasping for various theories to explain the drop, but it comes down to this:
Such factors do not, of course, explain why the county has lost competitive footing to neighboring counties on the SAT. Montgomery’s composite score this year falls 38 points shy of the Fairfax average (1654) and 25 points below Howard (1641). Just four years ago, Montgomery’s composite score was higher than Howard’s and trailed Fairfax by just three points. In that span, the pool of low-income students taking the exam in Montgomery has grown significantly. Fairfax and Howard counties have considerably less poverty.
