SAT results show Idaho students have work to do

Statewide data from Scholastic Achievement Test given to high school juniors is back.

Nearly 17,000 students took the test, which was paid for by the state, in April 2011.

The results show that only one in four high school juniors that took the exam actually met the college and career readiness benchmarks set by the College Board.

“Whether it’s the ACT or the SAT, both are recognized as being indicators of college preparedness,” said superintendent George Boland, Idaho Falls School District 91.

After the results of the “Idaho SAT School Day” showed students scored under the bar set by the College Board, they have some homework to do.

The College Board said a score of 500 indicates that a student will be successful in post-secondary education.

“If we see that we have a specific area where students are not performing as well as we think they could, then that gives us something to go back and examine for curriculums and instructional practices and things like that,” said Boland. “So, it’s good information to have.”

Devan Bliesner, a senior in Bonneville School District 93, was one of the first students to take the state-issued SAT test. He said he now feels more prepared to take it again during his last year of high school.

“You take your test for free, you get an idea, you can take more of them later, but now you’re not spending a hundred dollars or something on a test that you don’t even know what it’s going to be like,” said Bliesner.

In years past, students voluntarily chose whether to take the ACT or the SAT but now, all high school juniors are required to take a college entrance exam paid for by the state.

For the complete breakdown of all 105 districts in the state, visit http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/assessment/schoolDayReports.htm