SAT Scores Take Big Drop

Along with the new and lengthier SAT test has come a sharp drop in scores:

The high school class of 2006 recorded the sharpest drop in SAT scores in 31 years, a decline that the exam's owner, the College Board, said was partly due to some students taking the newly lengthened test only once instead of twice.

Fatigue wasn't to blame, the College Board insisted, even though this year's class was the first to take a new version of the exam which added an essay. It now takes an average of three hours and 45 minutes to complete the test, not counting breaks.

The results come several months after numerous colleges reported surprisingly low SAT scores for this year's incoming college freshmen. The nonprofit College Board, which had said scores would be down this year, released figures Tuesday showing combined critical reading and math skills fell seven points on average to 1021.

The average critical reading score fell from 508 to 503, while math dropped from 520 to 518. On the new SAT writing section, the class scored 497 on average, with girls scoring 11 points higher than boys.

Although the article doesn't make any connection, I'm wondering if part of the drop-off is due to the fact that the kids taking the test today are among the first who grew up playing video games in their spare time rather than reading. That would seem to me to be a logical connection.

Of course, younger generations spent a lot of time watching TV, but at least there was a slight chance of actually learning something. I'm sure somebody's got a study going.