Florida Students Can't Read So Good: Report

Minority students, however, scored better on SATs than average

Florida high school seniors again scored below the national average on the SAT college entrance exam, with the class of 2010 scoring slightly lower than 2009 did.

Test results released Monday show Florida students scoring an average of 496 in critical reading, 498 in math and 479 in writing, out of a maximum 800 points in each subject. Combined, Florida's score of 1473 was two points lower than the state scored in 2009 and 37 points below the national combined average of 1509. The state scored below average in every category: the national averages were 501 in reading, 516 in math and 492 in writing.

Some good news for Florida came from minority students, who generally scored better than their counterparts nationally.

Among racial and ethnic groups in Florida, students of Mexican heritage made the largest gains in each subject, jumping 10 points in writing and 9 in reading. Black and Hispanic students overall achieved higher scores in math and reading than their respective racial and ethnic groups nationwide.

As in other years, persistent trends regarding the relationships between family income and level of parental education held true, with those students coming from the poorest families also recording the lowest scores and those from the wealthiest with the highest - a gap of more than 100 points in all three subject areas.

"We need to prepare more of our students for college level work," said Alan Richard, spokesman for the Southern Regional Education Board. "Our economy now demands it, and if we expect to remain competitive globally than this is the type of work force we're going to need to have in the future."

Richard said that while important, the SAT and other college admission tests are not an overall indicator of a state's educational progress. He said SAT scores have generally shifted downward over the last few year, a trend that holds true in much of the Southeast United States.

Nationwide, the average SAT score held steady - the combined 1509 was the same score the class of 2009 received. That score is nine points lower than the average in 2006, when the writing section was added and the test shifted to a 2400-point scale.

 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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