Via Inside Higher Ed, College Board is reporting a drop in average SAT scores for the critical reading and writing sections. While the one point drops are not exactly statistically significant, the growing racial/ethnic gaps are more apparent. Average scores for Asian Americans went up by about 4 points for each section, while scores for blacks and latinos did not have a net increase. Indian Americans did gain an average of 2 points for math and one point for the reading section.
The fastest growing gaps are connected to income. High schoolers whose parents’ income level was “more than $200,000” had an average increase of about 8 points on every section, with lower incomes corresponding directly to smaller increases in scores. I would hypothesize that the growth and increased usage of test-prep centers explains most of these data changes.
