Yesterday I spent my professional development time period reviewing survey data I had collected from students about the SAT, PSAT 10, and the PSAT 8/9 that our students completed on April 10. It was a frustrating experience.
The SAT is a BIG DEAL for most of our students. I know this because I have attended meetings, reviewed SAT materials, viewed the money that colleges and universities offer to students based on test scores. The problem is that for most other people, they don't realize that it is a big deal. Parents and students don't realize how much a higher SAT score might benefit them in the area of scholarships. For example, at Western Illinois University, their Western Commitment Scholarship includes an annual $2,000 scholarship for an SAT score of 1020-1150. The next level of SAT scoring is 1060-1270, which is an annual $2,500 scholarship. These are annual scholarships, so students will be earning an $8,000 scholarship and $10,000 scholarship for their SAT scores. THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY. And those are the lowest levels of scoring. High scoring students can earn $10,000 annually; $40,000 during their college experience. THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY.
The SAT is also a BIG DEAL for most of our students because the higher the score, the more options available to the students. While no school typically has a cut-off score for application; most schools on their website data do post the SAT score of the typical student that attends the specific college or university. For example the middle 50% of students at WIU earn an SAT score of 940-1150. The University of Illinois, on the other hand, features students in the middle 50% that scored an SAT of 1360-1480, which is quite a difference. So the higher the SAT score, the more options of college choices that will be available to students.
FINALLY, the SAT is a BIG DEAL because the test measures the skills that are required for students to be successful in college and career training. College training would include typical community college, 4-year college/university, and technical colleges. Career training would include additional school/training that would fall in the realm more on the side of certificate programs. Certificate programs generally don't include a degree but are programs that would give students needed training towards a specific job that would need training beyond a high school diploma. Data backs up the fact that a large number of our students at Rockridge are going to pursue training that falls into college or career training. 61-of-79 students in the Class of 2018 responded to a survey about post-secondary decisions. 54 of the 61 responding students indicated that they were planning to pursue college or career training. If we have that many students pursuing that training path, shouldn't we make sure they have the skills needed to be successful in that pursuit?
You might be saying...what about the other students? The 7 of the 61 that are entering the military, an apprenticeship, or are planning to enter the workforce after high school. My position is that those students will also benefit by being more successful in those post-secondary choices and will be better prepared should they decide to pursue college or career training later in their lives.
SO THE SAT IS A BIG DEAL...and now the rest of the story.
If teachers aren't committing to helping their students better perform on the SAT, they aren't doing what is best for students. Some teachers say, "It's not my job." UGH! When I went through my administrative training 20 years ago, the catch phrase I ALWAYS heard was...."Do what's best for kids." We as educators - no matter what content we teach - can find ways to do what's right for kids and help them better learn the skills that are needed for college and career training (and in turn perform better on the SAT). And those ways can be subtle and minor and not require a total reconsideration and revision of curriculum. In fact those ways can be imbedded so well with so little effort that the students don't even realize they are receiving SAT skills work.
More importantly...when freshmen complete the PSAT 8/9 and when sophomores complete the PSAT 10, the teachers of those students MUST help those students prepare for those assessments with the same commitment that eleventh grade teachers give their eleventh grade students. What good does it do students to hand out a brochure a week before the test and tell them that they are going to complete the assessment soon. What? Are you kidding me? What is the message that was just sent to the students? Here is the message - "Ya, we are going to give you this test, and it's not important at all because we haven't discussed it all year, and we really aren't going to talk about the results with you, but at least you are going to get out of school early."
(Insert loud scream here.)
Thanks. Now I'm going to have to work even harder with the eleventh grade students and their parents to have them clearly understand the assessment and the importance of their scores. I'm going to have two years of data that probably means nothing because the teachers didn't care, and the students likely didn't give much of an effort.
BUT.....
At least we offered the experience of taking the test to the students, so they now have a better understanding of the experience, right?
NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
What we did was not only waste their time and a school day, we made later efforts to help students with the SAT even more challenging. And we sent a reaffirming message to most of the teachers in the building that all of this testing "crap" isn't their job.
Moral of the story. If a school is going to take the time to schedule students opportunity to complete the PSAT 8/9, the PSAT 10, and the SAT, do what's best for kids. Help them succeed. Start from Day 1 of the school year, regardless of content area, and infuse information, activities, and skills that will help students do their best. And then look at the data from those freshmen that completed the PSAT 8/9, which will now be more meaningful, and talk about ways with colleagues that will help better performance on the PSAT 10. Then look at the data from those sophomores that completed the PSAT 10, which will also be more meaningful, and talk about ways with colleagues that will help better performance on PSAT in October of the students' junior year. And then take the meaningful data from the PSAT, and help students perform their best on the SAT in April.
And in the meantime...CELEBRATE GROWTH. If students improve their scores, celebrate the accomplishments - with students and teachers. Perhaps even build a positive incentive like anyone who grows earns an additional excused day from school to job shadow or visit a post-secondary training path option. Perhaps if a large enough percentage of students improve their score, the teachers earn an additional professional or personal day - maybe a $25.00 gas card to Casey's!
Okay...ranting about the pet peeve completed. Time to go umpire. It actually feels like Spring today, so I'm gone to United High School to work a double-header.
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