Yesterday, while listening to community members in Marlboro County, Tom Thompson addressed the need to explore avenues to reach all students saying that they want to belong and they want to succeed. Soon, the conversation with the parents turned to our state’s SAT scores.
“While some praise the improved SAT scores, when we look at the data closely, we find the gap between subgroups of students has widened over the past several years.”
In 2006, the average score for African-American student was 421 in critical reading and dropped to 414 in 2009. During the same period, white students rose slightly from 512 to 514. In mathematics, African-American students scores dropped from an average score of 428 to 424 from 2006 to 2009, while white students went from 522 to 524 during the same period.
“There’s no way that these scores reflect improvement,” Thompson shared. “Let’s be honest, a 100-point difference in both critical reading and mathematics exists between groups of students and it must be aggressively addressed. By partnering with faith-based groups and business leaders, school leaders have found that tutorial programs have helped improve students’ scores. We need to be willing to roll up our sleeves and do something about it.”
Tom has his sleeves rolled up. Let’s get it done.
