TLDR – the average by state reported has selection bias as some states have SAT mandates vs other states that don't.

Posted by craftythedog

11 comments

  1. Important note that it noticed between these. Which the article goes over in general.

    I teach in KY and was surprised to see our SAT scores so high, but we have a remarkably low number. This will change this year as ACT lost the auction and SATs are being given to students this year.

    Before, it was high achievers attempting to get in prestigious schools. Now it’s going to be everyone.

  2. High scoring states are those with low % of test takers. The results are largely influenced by selection.

  3. What the other two commenters said. I went to HS in Kansas where the ACT was the preferred college aptitude test, the only kids who took the SAT were the ones competing to get into a prestige east coast school and of course they tended to score well.

  4. Data is not beautiful when the darker colors refer to lower numbers.

  5. Lol 58 people took it in North Dakota and they were the cream of the crop

  6. Interesting but not useful with some states mandating test like op said

  7. These maps should only be made using states where the test is given to every kid.

    Or one map for mandate states, and another map where the kids choose to take it.

    Showing both selection types in the same map is the opposite of beautiful data.

  8. My experience from a green state – we take ACT. Only the smarty pantses trying to get a free ride into a coastal school took the SATs. Very very skewed.

  9. Saw a report a couple months ago saying 1/3 of Harris County (Houston, Texas) residents are functionally illiterate. I wonder if there is a correlation here.

  10. You need to add the ACT equivalence for all these states. No way Alabama is better than California on an education number. It’s just that of those very few people taking the SAT, they’re getting high scores.

  11. This is very misleading. Texas for example sat is basically mandatory so you get every dumbass kid taking it and not caring. Many other states are optional so of course only kids with an interest take it

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