Despite the interruption, there is at least a little bit of good news coming out of Georgia schools this year. For the third year in a row, Georgia students performed better than the national average on the SAT, with a mean score of 1043 – 13 points higher than the national mean.
“The class of 2020 has faced unprecedented adversity and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “Given all they have overcome, I am so proud of these students for becoming the third graduating class in Georgia history to beat the national average on the SAT. I continue to be optimistic about the future of Georgia public schools as our students, teachers, and schools continue to surpass expectations and outperform their peers nationally.”
The state barely edged out the national average by one in Math and breeze past the national score of Reading and Writing by 12 points.
It’s not for certain correlated, but the pandemic may have played a part in a drop of scores across the board, both in Georgia and across the country. Scores were down one in Georgia on Reading and Writing, and down four in Math, for a total composite drop of 5 from 2019-2020. Nationwide, the total drop was down nine, with five points lost in Math and four points lost in Reading and Writing.
There was also a slight drop in participation, with only 64% of students taking the test this year compared to 67% last year. One might expect that those likely to score well on the test would have still found a way to take it, despite the pandemic, and the reverse for those concerned about a poor performance. But it made no difference as the scores fell.
Many schools across the country are wrestling with what to do with the SATs this year, due to the pandemic. There was already concern across academia about the way the test might reflect socioeconomic differences between groups – with minority groups frequently scoring lower – and the pandemic has only added uncertainty to the reliance on the test for admissions this year.
The University System of Georgia has already waived SAT and ACT requirements for admissions in 2021 and more than 1,000 schools across the country have also waived it. The percent of participation for students next year may see a historic drop-off. Not necessarily a bad thing but it may make comparisons to previous years and measuring improvement even more difficult.
