Press Releases
2001 College Bound Seniors Are the Largest, Most Diverse Group in History
More Than a Third Are Minority, But Gap Remains08/28/01
WASHINGTON, DC, -- The 1.3 million SAT® test-takers entering college this fall will include the largest number of minority students in history, comprising more than a third of all test-takers, according to the College Board. Information volunteered by SAT test-takers in the high school class of 2001 also revealed that approximately 364,000 students would be first-generation college students.
"The large number of students who are from minority groups is very heartening," said College Board President Gaston Caperton. "It's also encouraging that so many of them are first-generation college attendees, particularly given the fact that about 60 percent are women."
The College Board is also reporting that average SAT verbal scores for college bound students increased one point this year to 506, the highest average score in more than a decade. SAT math scores remained at last year's 30-year high of 514.
Evidence of Excellence
SAT scores have risen significantly over the past decade. Since 1991, verbal scores have increased 7 points while math scores have increased 14 points. This year, more than 20 percent of SAT test-takers achieved a combined verbal and math score of 1200 or higher on the exams, and 587 students scored a perfect 1600.
Students also reported higher academic aspirations than did students of the past. More than half of all college-bound students plan to pursue master's and/or doctoral degrees.
Caperton pointed to students such as Nyron Shane Burke as an example of the best of this year's college bound. "We too frequently hear of the negative when it comes to education in this country," he said. "Nyron and his family emigrated from Jamaica when he was seven years old and he later went to public high school in Prince George's County, Maryland. He offers evidence that there are pockets of excellence in America's schools. Nyron isn't from an affluent family, but his parents guided him, along with his teachers, and Nyron studied hard, took Advanced Placement Program® courses and achieved at high levels. This fall, he will be attending Princeton University."
Caperton also spotlighted Nadia Awad. "Nadia is a public school student from rural Pylesville, Maryland, whose mother and father immigrated from Greece and Egypt respectively," he explained. "Nadia inspires us with her strong personal commitment to excellence. As early as her sophomore year, she began taking Advanced Placement courses and worked on practice SAT tests. Because her high school didn't offer a sufficiently strong calculus course, she traveled to a state college where an excellent course was offered. She was one of the two students from her state who were selected to attend Youth Science Camp in West Virginia this summer. In the fall, she will study chemical engineering and enter the pre-med program at Johns Hopkins."
Bridging the Opportunity Gap
While Caperton touted success stories like Nyron's and Nadia's, he was quick to point out that not all of this year's news is good.
"Seeing the scores increase and seeing our students aim high is exciting. But there are some troubling realities that must be addressed. Scores for many ethnic and minority groups continue to lag behind. A gender gap, though narrowed, persists." According to Caperton, "the time to celebrate is still to come¿the party shouldn't start until everyone has been invited."
Caperton pointed out that:
- More than half of all SAT test-takers (53.6 percent) are women.
- Since 1991, the gap between male and female verbal and math achievement on the SAT has narrowed, though slowly.
- In 1991, men outperformed women on the SAT verbal exam by 8 points; today, the score differential is down to 7 points.
- A decade ago, men achieved an average math score 38 points higher than their female counterparts; today men score an average of 35 points higher than women on the SAT math exam.
- More students from racial and ethnic minority groups are represented in the class of 2001's college-bound seniors than ever before. But while growing in number, minority students, for the most part, continue to trail their white counterparts in average verbal and math scores. Asian American students alone outperform all other groups with their performance on the math section of the SAT.
"The score gaps for different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups that we see on the SAT also appear on virtually every measure of achievement, including other standardized tests and classroom grades, and they show up as early as fourth grade," said Caperton. "These differences are a powerful illustration of a persistent social problem in our country: inequitable access to high-quality education."
Data on this year's SAT test-takers offer hope that this "opportunity gap" can be narrowed through increased access to rigorous coursework. College Board researchers found that students who took challenging courses such as precalculus, calculus, and physics had significantly higher average SAT scores that those students who did not take rigorous coursework. This was true for students regardless of racial or ethnic group.
But researchers also found that access to rigorous coursework varies greatly across racial and ethnic groups. For example, while 49 percent of white students studied physics in high school, only 40 percent of African American students could say the same. And while 59 percent of Asian American students reported taking precalculus, just 34 percent of Puerto Ricans reported having taken the course.
According to Caperton, "Urgent steps must be taken to increase the access of minority and low-income students to high quality K-12 education. This means radically improving curricula, teacher training, and accountability in all schools-elementary through high school."
While this year's SAT scores were in some cases a cause for guarded optimism, Caperton cautioned "a true national commitment to broadly increase student achievement and opportunity is not yet a fact of life in this great country."
He concluded by saying, "We can sustain social and economic success only if we honestly address our greatest national security threat-the enduring inequity of access to educational opportunity."
A SNAPSHOT OF SAT TAKERSAccording to Caperton, a look at this year's SAT takers indicates that:
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