The College Board released some alarming statistics this week, reporting that SAT critical reading mean scores had declined 33 points since 1972. Since 2006, writing mean scores have decreased eight points.
Here’s more analysis from the Washington Post: “Nationally, the reading score for the Class of 2011, including public- and private-school students, was 497, down three points from the previous year and 33 points from 1972, the earliest year for which comparisons are possible.”
More than 1.6 million high school students took the SAT this year, hoping to attend colleges around the country. In the College Board chart embedded above, you can see how the scores have evolved over the last ten years. As these scores decline, library cuts around the country seem especially dangerous.