Scientifically Correct

SAT scores and HOPE scholarship in Georgia

Splashed over the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (Sun Sep 28) is the headline: Perdue wants to add SAT score to HOPE requirement.

As was extensively reported last month Georgia ranks 50th in average SAT scores, and this is a matter of some local embarrassment. (The state ranks 15th in participation rate, so the low score is not as bad as may be thought at first.) A few days ago I reported here on the response of Georgia's Superintendent of Schools, Kathy Cox, to the low SAT scores, and I explained why I think that her focus on test preparation misses the mark. In the present AJC article, reported by James Salzer, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue voices his views.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Perdue argued that forcing students to obtain a minimum SAT score to earn the HOPE scholarship - combined with the only current requirement, a B grade average - would help boost Georgia's dismal national education rankings. [...]

"Knowing that there is a perception of grade inflation, I got to thinking about where our SAT scores would be today if, 10 years ago, they had been a component of the HOPE scholarship," Perdue said Friday. "My theory is, we wouldn't be 50th out of 50 states."

The question is, he said, "Are we willing to think of this [HOPE] as a merit-based scholarship which addresses a serious issue of lagging behind in SAT scores?"

[HOPE - Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally - provides financial assistance for study at eligible Georgia public and private colleges and universities, and public technical colleges.]

Governor Perdue's suggestion looks as misguided as the policy of Superintendent Cox with regard to the low SAT scores, and I don't think the proposal is advisable policy for the HOPE scholarship either. With regard to the SAT scores the state will have to focus on instruction in grades K-8, and then not expect an effect on the scores next year, or the year after that. (Please note that "SAT" refers in all the local reporting to the SAT-I; the traditional math and verbal test with focus on aptitude.) For a college scholarship it looks not unreasonable to take into account SAT scores, which are generally held to be a good predictor of college success, but one should not confuse the issue and present it as a way to improve high school education. For the latter purpose, and it would be a fine objective for Gov. Perdue, one should consider scores on some proper test of school learning. The SAT-II subject tests come to mind, or something like the traditional New York State Regents examinations, or some good quality statewide high school exit exam.

The AJC article raises the familiar sensitive issue and reports the Governor's response.

"States have seen a much lower percentage of minority students qualifying [for scholarships] when they add test scores," said Gary Henry, a Georgia State University researcher who has studied the HOPE program for much of its 10-year existence.

Perdue said that doesn't have to happen in Georgia.

"I think that's an example of falling prey to the bigotry of low expectations to say that African-American children can't be successful on the SAT," the governor said.

That is a rather harsh response to something that wasn't said. As the AJC article points out, the average score of Georgia's white students was 1035 and that of the black students was 852.

Henry, the GSU researcher, offers this perspective.

"The SAT is not based on the curriculum that students take during high school," he said. "I think the SAT [requirement] would undermine students' current incentive to work hard all four years of high school and further, it would potentially put the whole scholarship program in question."

I'm with Henry on this matter, and I think that Governor Perdue's suggestion to include the SAT score among the HOPE requirements is poor policy. This balloon should not fly. It won't fly, I'm convinced, but this for an entirely different and irrelevant reason. If the SAT becomes part of the HOPE requirements then more students will take the SAT and this will be a burden on the average scores. I think that the Governor will have second thoughts about the matter, and the suggestion to add the SAT score to the HOPE requirements will quietly disappear.