THOSE CRAZY "COLLEGE READINESS" INDICATORS
In Sunday's Idaho Statesman, an economist writing in the "Guest Opinion" section made this statement about SAT performance of Idaho's students:
and then later in the opinion:
"Regardless of the measure, the takeaway is the same: the large majority of Idaho’s students are not prepared for life after high school."
So it's really not important which way you analyze the results, because every measure will show the low performance of Idaho students, which the author characterized as "at best average in the share of high school students who are college and career ready."
The issue, however, is that it does matter, and that measures of "college readiness" are providing us with dramatically different estimates of where Idaho's high school college readiness performance stands.
THE SAT AND PSAT
The SAT is a college-readiness test administered to all juniors in Idaho and provided by the College Board, which also publishes a test called the PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test) which is taken by 10th graders across Idaho. The College Board also provides the Advanced Placement examinations, which are administered to students taking AP courses at the conclusion of the course.
For the past several years, there have been 3 subtests on the SAT - Reading, Math, and Writing. But the April 2016 administration of the SAT to all juniors will be with a test revised to align with the Idaho Core standards, and will have only 2 subtests, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math. Here is the performance of Idaho and Boise students on the 2015 administration of the (old) test.
The first administration of the "new" PSAT to all sophomores was in October 2015, with results arriving in January. The new PSAT (and new SAT ) are meant to predict preparation for entry level college courses in math and language arts in 2 and 4-year colleges. Here are the results of the first Idaho administration of the PSAT:
Note that PSAT math performance and passage of both tests is considerably higher than on the "old" SAT, and that ERW performance is far above that seen on the old SAT in Reading or Writing.
SBAC
But wait- there's more! Idaho conducted the first administration of the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment) last spring, tying up computers across the state for weeks on end. The SBAC results, promised by the end of the school year, turned up in late July.
So, math readiness on the old SAT and on the SBAC matches up fairly well, but the PSAT readiness indicator is quite a bit higher; in Reading, the new PSAT features readiness percentages that are far higher than the old SAT, and the SBAC readiness percentages are somewhere in the middle.
Is the percentage of Idaho "college ready" students in Reading 37%, as the old SAT indicated, or is it 90%, as the PSAT said, or 61%, as the SBAC noted? Who knows?
And this brings us to a final indicator, which will be the subject of the next Data Points post. Next time we'll have a look at the growth in Dual Credit and Advanced Placement coursework across the state and in the Treasure Valley. This post will focus on student participation in these programs and college credits earned by Idaho students - the most reliable indicator of readiness, we'd say.
The SAT is a college-readiness test administered to all juniors in Idaho and provided by the College Board, which also publishes a test called the PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test) which is taken by 10th graders across Idaho. The College Board also provides the Advanced Placement examinations, which are administered to students taking AP courses at the conclusion of the course.
For the past several years, there have been 3 subtests on the SAT - Reading, Math, and Writing. But the April 2016 administration of the SAT to all juniors will be with a test revised to align with the Idaho Core standards, and will have only 2 subtests, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math. Here is the performance of Idaho and Boise students on the 2015 administration of the (old) test.
The first administration of the "new" PSAT to all sophomores was in October 2015, with results arriving in January. The new PSAT (and new SAT ) are meant to predict preparation for entry level college courses in math and language arts in 2 and 4-year colleges. Here are the results of the first Idaho administration of the PSAT:
Note that PSAT math performance and passage of both tests is considerably higher than on the "old" SAT, and that ERW performance is far above that seen on the old SAT in Reading or Writing.
SBAC
But wait- there's more! Idaho conducted the first administration of the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment) last spring, tying up computers across the state for weeks on end. The SBAC results, promised by the end of the school year, turned up in late July.
So, math readiness on the old SAT and on the SBAC matches up fairly well, but the PSAT readiness indicator is quite a bit higher; in Reading, the new PSAT features readiness percentages that are far higher than the old SAT, and the SBAC readiness percentages are somewhere in the middle.
Is the percentage of Idaho "college ready" students in Reading 37%, as the old SAT indicated, or is it 90%, as the PSAT said, or 61%, as the SBAC noted? Who knows?
And this brings us to a final indicator, which will be the subject of the next Data Points post. Next time we'll have a look at the growth in Dual Credit and Advanced Placement coursework across the state and in the Treasure Valley. This post will focus on student participation in these programs and college credits earned by Idaho students - the most reliable indicator of readiness, we'd say.
