Friday, July 8, 2016

2016 SAT STATEWIDE RESULTS

The SAT Schoolday exam was administered to Idaho juniors in April. Over 17,000 students took the revised exam, which consists of two subtests, Evidence-Based Reading ad Writing and Mathematics. Each subtest has a maximum score of 800, for a total possible score of 1600.

We requested statewide district and school scores from the State Department of Education, along with SAT participation numbers. The SDE also provided recent 11th grade enrollment numbers from across the state. Kelly Everitt from the State Department of Education graciously provided these results. Then, we added free/reduced lunch percentages for each school and district to the mix. 

It's important to consider indicators of poverty in analyses such as ours, since the SAT (and the SBAC) are highly correlated with poverty. Then, we can assess the status of schools in comparison with the expectations that might be associated with the level of poverty at that school/in that district, and use data from some "outliers" to help those that might not have fared so well.

Results

Here are scattergrams portraying SAT results for the total test, and for the two subtests. We used SAT "percent prepared" percentage as the "y axis", and free/reduced lunch percentages on the "x axis"

These percentages are often misused. It's important to remember that SAT scores are just one indicator of preparedness for post-secondary pursuits. In fact, grades are the best predictor, and should be the first indicator used in assessing preparedness. Rigor of coursework, level of math courses taken and passed, extra-curricular participation, and other factors are also important. However, many colleges and universities use SAT and ACT scores as part of their admissions processes.

We used a threshold of 75% participation for including schools in the analysis we did, which left out three high schools (Lakeland - 71%, Wood River - 69% - and Weiser, - 71%). In addition, we excluded alternative high schools and magnet schools, since we were interested in comprehensive high school performance.  Two charters, Compass Academy, and Idaho Virtual Academy, made the 75 student cutoff and exceeded the 75% participation mark.

Evidence-based Reading and Writing




Here are results of the Evidence-based Reading and Writing subtest. Boise, Timberline, and Moscow high schools are typically among the high performing high schools in the state, and continued that pattern in 2016, and Compass Charter's performance was quite good, as well. However, when we factor in free/reduced lunch percentages, some other schools show excellent performance: Twin Falls, Timberlake (Lakeland District), Capital, Century (Pocatello), Sandpoint, Centennial, and Post Falls did well in this comparison among schools with 30-50% free/reduced populations. And Jerome, Canyon Ridge (Twin Falls District), Columbia, Vallivue, and Idaho Virtual were high performers among districts with 60-80% free/reduced lunch.

One factor that's not considered in this comparison is the Limited English population of a school. Though the vast majority of LEP students qualify for free/reduced lunch, they are also just learning the English language, and the SAT and SBAC present a complex range of tasks that often make the test almost impossible. With the focus in Common Core on reading even in the math section, these Core-aligned tests are extremely difficult for our LEP students, and few do well. However, as these students grow more comfortable with the English language, and participate in programs such as AVID (available in Boise and Vallivue), many do well in college pursuits.

Schools such as Timberlake, Sandpoint, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and many others have few LEP students, or may even have none.

That being said, for a school like Borah, with the highest percentage of LEP students in the state, the scores of the LEP population artificially deflate the school's performance. When Borah's LEP scores are taken from the total, it's "readiness" percentage would be much higher. Even with the scores included for the LEP students (some of whom are in their first or second year in the U.S.), Borah's performance is above expectations.

Math





In the math comparison, many of the same schools performed well. Madison, which has historically performed very well in math, shows up in this comparison. On the 50%+ free/reduced comparison, Emmett and Buhl appear as high-performers, as does Caldwell, which has nearly 80% free/reduced, as well as a high percentage of LEP students.

Since SAT and the SBAC results correlate highly with poverty, it's important that teachers receive specific results from the test that allow them to pinpoint curricular strengths and weaknesses so that they might improve results over time.

Do the two tests provide such information? That's the subject of our next blog post.