Illinois SAT Scores Lag Behind Nation

ILLINOIS — SAT scores in Illinois lagged behind the nation as test-takers across the country saw their overall scores slightly tick up. More than 2 million graduates in the class of 2018 took the SAT — a 25 percent increase over the previous class and now the largest group ever, according to College Board, which creates the test. The SAT is one of two major exams that attempt to measure how ready a student is to take college-level courses.

In Illinois, 98 percent of 2018 graduates took the SAT during high school, the organization announced Thursday. The mean total score was 1022, comprised of a 514 score in reading and writing and a 508 score in math (the numbers may not perfectly add up due to rounding). Each section ranges in score from a low of 200 to a high of 800, which would constitute a perfect score.

The organization said 38 percent of Illinois test-takers met the requisite benchmarks for both the reading and writing section as well as math. A student who meets the benchmark has a 75 percent chance of earning at least a C in associated college-level coursework.

Meanwhile, America’s mean total score this year was 1068, up from 1060 for the class of 2017. The reading and writing score was 536 while the math score was 531.

Forty-seven percent of test takers met both reading and writing and math benchmarks, 1 percent point higher than the previous class. While 70 percent of students met the benchmark for reading and writing, 49 percent met the benchmark for math.

Nationwide, 44 percent of the students who took the exam identified as white, 23 percent identified as Hispanic or Latino, 12 percent identified as black or African-American, and 10 percent identified as Asian. Most test takers — 52 percent — identified as female.

Nationwide, SAT scores painted a rosier picture of the state of American education than the other major college-readiness exam, ACT, which sounded the alarm about last week over what it saw as a growing number of kids who weren’t prepared for college courses.

The opposite was true in Illinois, where ACT scores rose this year and the average composite score was higher than the national average.

ACT Scores Rise In Illinois, Drop Nationwide

ACT math scores fell to their lowest level since 2004, the organization said in its annual report. The percentage of test-takers who were prepared to take a first-year college algebra course fell to just 40 percent, down one percentage point from last year and way down from 46 percent just six years ago. ACT said readiness in English has also been trending downward, with scores falling 4 percentage points from 2015 to 60 percent this year.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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