Jan 15, 2018
With more SAT and ACT test-takers than ever before thanks to a NYC initiative, tutors have their work cut out for them to help narrow the achievement gap facing students.
Roughly three-quarters of NYC’s high school juniors sat the SAT last year – an increase of 51.5% over the previous year, thanks in part to Mayor Bill De Blasio’s $2.2 million initiative to boost numbers for low-income SAT (and ACT) test-takers.
The “SAT School Day” waives the $46 test fee and allows low-income students to sit the exam at school, and is part of the city’s “College Access for All” program, which aims to have 80% of NYC high schoolers graduate on time by 2026, with two-thirds of graduates being college ready.
Despite an impressive 61,800 NYC high school juniors sitting the SAT at least once last year, poor test performance continue to dog NYC students. Average scores for test-taking juniors were 494 for Math (college-ready benchmark is 530) and 490 for Reading (college-ready benchmark is 480). There’s a racial factor as well, with black and Latinx students on average underperforming compared to white students, highlighting NYC’s broader education problems, like access to personalized learning and lack of adequate school funding.
banner image from https://ny.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/01/11/record-number-of-new-york-city-students-take-sat-after-city-offers-test-for-free/
Record number of New York City students take SAT after city offers test for free https://ny.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/01/11/record-number-of-new-york-city-students-take-sat-after-city-offers-test-for-free/
