WASHINGTON, April 27 -- A barometer of how well the nation's big-city school students are achieving can be found in four new studies being released today at the national Education Writers Association meeting in Phoenix.
The reports by the Council of the Great City Schools, the nation's primary coalition of urban public school systems, show how inner-city students are doing on Stanford Achievement Tests (SAT-9), Advanced Placement exams, as well as SAT and ACT college-entrance tests.
The new studies present findings by race, sex, income, and course-taking patterns in a variety of subject areas, including reading, English, math, and the sciences.
"These new reports present an objective and unvarnished look at how the nation's urban school students are performing on several of the most widely administered standardized tests in the nation," stresses Council Executive Director Michael Casserly.
(The studies precede a fifth report that tracks urban school trends on state assessments to be released by the Council at a press conference on May 22 at the National Press Club in the nation's capital. A report on city-by-city, subject-by-subject and grade-by-grade assessments will be released.)
Stanford-9 Test Results
Striving for Excellence: A Report on Stanford Achievement Test Results in the Great City Schools shows how students in 16 major city school systems are performing on the SAT-9-the most commonly administered norm-referenced test among the nation's urban districts.
The Council collaborated with Harcourt Educational Measurement, which developed the SAT-9, to examine the Spring 1999 scores of more than 760,000 urban test-takers in grades 2 through 11 on eight subtests, including Total Reading; Reading Comprehension; Reading Vocabulary; Total Math; Problem Solving; Math Procedures, Language, and Science.
The report shows both encouraging and discouraging results in a number of areas:
- Mean reading and math scores in the Great City Schools hovered around 42 to 45 NCEs (Normal Curve Equivalents)-or in the average range.
- Approximately 43% of Great City School 4th grade students scored below the basic level of proficiency in reading comprehension compared with about 30% of the average 4th grader nationally.
- Students enrolled in Great City School districts with the highest concentrations of poverty had significantly lower reading and math scores than students in less poor districts.
- Females in the Great City Schools outscored males in reading and were similar to males in math.
- White test-takers in the Great City Schools outperformed all other urban test-takers and outscored the national norm (50) by about 10 NCEs.
- Achievement gaps between white and non-white Great City School test-takers were significant but similar in magnitude to those found nationally.
Advanced Placement Test Results
Advancing Excellence in Urban Schools: A Report on Advanced Placement Examinations in the Great City Schools examines Advanced Placement (AP) course-taking patterns and subject test results in America's urban schools.
The Council conducted the analysis in collaboration with the College Board, which offers AP courses and exams in 33 subjects. Findings are based on approximately 38,000 AP test results from 58 Great City School districts in the spring of 1999.
Results showed that:
- Mean AP test scores for students in the Great City Schools were more likely to be below the 3.0 needed to earn college credit than students nationally whose average AP test scores were slightly above 3.0.
- Great City School students posted their highest average AP scores in calculus (3.3) and lowest average scores in physics and chemistry (2.2).
- Great City School students who had taken more core courses outscored those who had taken fewer core courses.
- AP scores nationally and in the Great City Schools were strongly related to family income.
- White students in the Great City Schools were more likely to outperform all other urban test-takers while African-American students scored lower than all other students.
- African-American students in the Great City Schools were less likely to have taken core courses than any other group.
SAT I Test Results
Making the Grade: A Report on SAT I Results in the Nation's Urban Schools examines SAT I verbal and math test results in the Great City Schools.
Results were compiled by the Council of the Great City Schools and the College Board based on approximately 110,000 SAT I test results in 58 big-city school districts during the 1998-99 school year. Some of the findings include:
- The average SAT verbal score in the Great City Schools was 460, compared with the national average of 506; the average math score in the Great City Schools was 468, compared with 512 nationally.
- Males in the Great City Schools, on average, outscored females on both the verbal and math portions of the SAT I.
- Students with core or more academic courses outscored students with less than core courses both in the Great City Schools and nationally.
- SAT scores nationally and in the Great City Schools were strongly related to household income.
- White students in the Great City Schools scored as well as white students nationally and were most likely to have taken core academic courses.
- The gap in SAT scores between white and African American students was somewhat larger in the Great City Schools than nationally.
ACT Test Results
A Decade of ACT Results in the Nation's Urban Schools 1990-1999: A Report on Urban Student Achievement and Course Taking examines ACT college entrance test scores on some 60,000 students in 57 Great City School districts between 1990 and 1999.
The analysis was conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools and ACT. Results showed that:
- The average ACT composite score in the Great City Schools was 18.9 in 1999 (unchanged since 1990), compared with the national average of 21.0 (up from 20.6 in 1990).
- The average ACT math score in the Great City Schools increased from 18.6 in 1990 to 19.0 in 1999, but the average ACT reading score remained unchanged at 19.1.
- The percentage of ACT test-takers in the Great City Schools who had taken a core academic sequence of courses increased from 44% in 1990 to 60% in 1999.
- Females in the Great City Schools, on average, outscored males on ACT English and reading, but below males on math and science reasoning.
- Average ACT scores nationally and in the Great City Schools were strongly related to household income.
- White students in the Great City Schools, on average, scored higher than all other racial groups, and higher than white students nationally
Most Improved Districts
The analysis also showed which major city schools had improved the most on their ACT scores between 1990 and 1999:
- New York City schools improved the most on ACT composite scores, English, and math.
- Oakland schools improved the most on ACT reading and science reasoning.
- Chicago schools improved the most in reading among urban districts that used the ACT more frequently than the SAT I.
- Pittsburgh, Anchorage, and St. Louis also posted broad gains in ACT scores between 1990 and 1999.
