College placement exam scores down from last year

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

College placement exam scores for Clark County School District students were down overall this year compared with the previous year, but education officials said an increase in the number of students taking the tests is a positive trend.

"As our district grows, for us to be even able to hold the status quo on scores is important," Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction, said. "The good news is more of our kids are looking ahead to college."

During the 2001-02 school year Clark County students who took the tests scored lower than their counterparts in Nevada and nationwide on both the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American College Testing Program exam, according to figures provided by the district.

Districtwide gains and losses on both the SAT and ACT were small overall, in some cases a single point changed between school years. But when broken down by gender, girls were more likely to see a drop in scores, a result that troubled district officials.

In Clark County SAT math scores for boys went up five points to 536, while scores for girls on the same portion of the exam dropped three points to 497. Girls also scored lower on the verbal portion of the exam, dropping three points to 497. Verbal scores for boys stayed the same at 506.

In an effort to bridge the gender gap, district officials have applied for $850,000 in federal funds to start a girls-only math and science magnet program at five area middle schools.

"We have to get the message out to girls early on that they can be engineers and astronauts and scientists," said Jhone Ebert, director of the district's secondary education math and science curriculum. "If we work with the girls early on, hopefully we'll see significant improvement in their test scores later."

The number of students who took the ACT dropped from 2,723 in 2001 to 2,601 last year, according to the district. The number of students who took the SAT climbed from 2,743 in 2001 to 2,976 last year.

In most cases when the size of the testing pool increases, the average scores drop, said Judy Costa, director of testing and accountability for the district. But Costa said she was at a loss to explain why the district's ACT results were down even though the number of students taking the test declined as well.

On the SAT more Clark County students took the test than in previous years but only the math score increased -- from 513 in 2001 to 515 this year. The average verbal score dropped two points, from 503 to 501. The state average was 518 for math and 509 for verbal. The national average was 516 for math and 518 for verbal.

Scores dropped on all portions of the ACT, which includes English, math, reading and science reasoning. Clark County students also scored lower than their counterparts both in Nevada and nationwide. The district's average composite score was 21, down less than half a point from 2001. The state average this year was 21.3 while the national average was 20.8.