City SAT Scores Lowest Since 2003

New York City's math and reading SAT scores are at their lowest since 2003, even as state tests show rising math and English proficiency.

Public school seniors who graduated in 2007 scored an average of 903 out of 1600 on the popular college entrance exam's math and reading sections, down from 911 last year, the city Department of Education announced this morning. The eight-point drop, the biggest in recent years, is double the decline in national math and reading scores, which fell to 1015 from 1019.

City math scores fell most sharply, dropping to 462 out of a possible 800 from 467 last year and 472 in 2003. The proportion of students between third and eighth grade meeting state math standards, meanwhile, went up by eight percentage points this year, with 65% of students scoring proficient compared to 57% last year.

The discrepancy follows reports from local colleges that graduates of the city schools are poorly prepared for university work, particularly math classes, despite rising graduation rates touted by Mayor Bloomberg.

The provost of the City University of New York, Selma Botman, has urged the system's colleges to think of new ways to battle high failure rates in entry-level math courses, including pre-algebra and elementary algebra. Ms. Botman also announced a hike in admissions standards that will elevate the minimum math SAT score to 510 from 480 at top CUNY colleges this year — 48 points above the city average.

A city Department of Education spokesman, Andrew Jacob, said the lower average in city public schools reflects national trends.

The SAT itself has also changed in the last two years: the College Board added a new writing section, extended the length of the test to 3 hours and 45 minutes, eliminated analogies in favor of more critical reading, and beefed-up math questions. On the new writing section, New York City's public school seniors also posted declines this year, dropping to an average of 433 from 437, Mr. Jacob said. Nationally, writing scores dropped three points, to 494 from 497.

The College Board discourages linking changes in SAT scores directly to school quality, noting that demographic factors such as a rise in the number of test-takers tend to have a big impact on average scores. About 3,110 more New York City students took the SAT this year, following a push by the Department of Education to offer the PSAT free for the first time last year, Mr. Jacob said.

The number of students taking the test nationally also rose to an all-time high of nearly 1.5 million high school seniors, the College Board reported.

The Board, a nonprofit based in the city, however, maintains that the SAT "is a strong indicator of trends in the college-bound population," lobbying admissions officers to use it as a fair measure of college readiness.

Announcing a national decline in the average math score last year, the College Board's vice president for research and data analysis, Wayne Camara, said his data suggested a strong relationship between students' scores and the rigor of their high school curriculum. In 2006, he said, students taking more challenging high school classes scored much higher than students with a lighter load.

Raising math standards in high school is a high priority at the Department of Education, which has targeted the goal mainly through its mission to recruit and train more qualified math teachers, Mr. Jacob said. An initiative this summer created a City College Course designed to help teachers with a new geometry class, he said.