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SAT scores continue to decline for Houston-area districts.
Last week, the Texas Education Agency released SAT scores for the graduating class of 2023. Houston-area schools saw an average decrease of 5% in their total scores from 2019 to 2023. Last year, students scored an average of 972, falling 8 points below the state average of 980 and 56 points below the national average.
Data from the College Board shows that the average SAT total score nationally was 1050 for the class of 2022 before dropping 22 points to 1028 for the 2023 class.
Sherry Sylvester, a distinguished senior fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said this decline all started with covid.
"Covid was a huge setback for the education of an entire generation of kids," Sylvester said.
Sylvester believes the covid pandemic from 2020 and into the following year has left a significant and perhaps lasting impact on students and the way they have tried to learn.
"This isn't something that can be repaired quickly," she said. "We are going to continue to see this. This is going to follow these kids."
After many higher education institutions not requiring SAT testing, it is starting to become required again by the colleges and universities. If schools didn't have the SAT to look at to see how their students are doing in their learning then what would they use?
"We really have to know how to measure what our kids are learning or as you are seeing from these results in Houston, what our kids are not learning," said Sylvester.
This all despite the fact that Superintendent Mike Miles has seen strides since beginning his tenure. There were over 140 failing schools districts in Houston ISD. Now, there are about 40.
In some other numbers from the most recent results released by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), the average U.S. math scores declined significantly between 2019 and 2023, falling 18 points for 4th graders and 27 points for 8th graders. According to the 2022 NAEP, or “Nation’s Report Card,” 29% of the nation’s 8th graders are proficient in reading, while just 26% are proficient in math.