The Kids Are All Right
Dip in SAT Scores Reveals More
About Test Than About Students

When I was a junior and senior at Watauga High School, I took the PSAT once and the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) twice. Each time I took the test my overall score went up about 110 points. I honestly don’t think I was getting any smarter, I was just getting good at taking a timed, standardized, multiple-choice test in the style of the SAT.

I was also getting more comfortable taking the SAT, something that can’t be said of some of my classmates. With college choices hinging on the results, some of them literally threw up in the WHS parking lot on the Saturday of the dreaded SAT. Me, I just strode through the halls of WHS armed with my trusty number 2 pencil, looking forward to my showdown with answers A, B, C, D and “all of the above.”

My SAT scores had a lot to do with which college I was able to get into and absolutely nothing to do with my success, or lack thereof, once I got there.

At The Mountain Times we annually receive a press release from the North Carolina Dept. of Public Instruction telling us how this year’s high school juniors and seniors did on the most recent SAT test. Every year it is one of two scenarios: A) Test scores are up slightly and everybody gives each other hearty pats on the backs. Or B) Test scores are down slightly and everybody wrings their hands and tries to figure out why our kids got slightly stupider during the past 12 months.

The SAT scores result in endless speculation about what we’ve done right or wrong in the public school system and you’ll see many a newspaper article devoted to them.

Am I the only person who thinks that the fluctuations each year are the result of the relative difficulty of the test? Think about it. There are a finite number of questions you can put into the SAT each year, and every year’s questions are different. How can the makers of the test ensure that it is exactly as challenging from year to year? If the scores went down in every county in the state, doesn’t it make more sense to assume that the SATs were just a little harder this year? Why do we jump to the conclusion that something is wrong with little Johnny’s education compared to that of his sister Jane who is a year older? Especially if Johnny and Jane went to the same high school where curricula doesn’t change that much from one year to the next.

One of the real scandals about the SAT that doesn’t get the press that it deserves is that the test scores have become so important to schools that some kids are dissuaded from taking it. Say, for instance, Buddy’s dad and grandfather were both farmers and from his mediocre grades it looks like Buddy will forego college and become a farmer also. Well, it probably wouldn’t take too much persuading to get old Buddy to skip the SATs altogether. Repeat this scenario a couple dozen times and you can see how a crafty principal or guidance counselor could raise his school’s average SAT score by a handful of points.

I’m not saying it happens around here, I’m just saying that it happens.

The truth is that, for whatever reason, the high school kids in the High Country continually rank near the top of the heap when it comes to SAT scores in the state. For the past decade Watauga and Orange counties have ranked in the top two or three out of 100 North Carolina counties when the results are posted. Some people might believe that we consistently do so well because the teachers here emphasize standardized tests, although I’ve never seen nor heard any evidence of this from teachers, parents or students.

I think students at WHS excel at the SAT because teachers there emphasize a well-rounded curriculum that includes art and music as well as the core classes of math, science, social studies and English.

In a recent survey of American adults, 27 percent stated that they did not read one book in the past year. I imagine if you surveyed Watauga High School kids, that number would be near zero. So the future looks a little brighter around here for the survival of the written word.

And that’s a good thing for folks like me who depend on readers for a living!