SAT math score declines could change Colorado graduation requirements

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Colorado next month may lower the passing score on high school math tests many students use to meet graduation requirements, the latest potential fallout from test scores that fell dramatically this year.

Without such a change, it’s possible graduation rates could drop for the Class of 2025, Colorado Department of Education officials told the State Board of Education on Thursday.

To graduate from high school in Colorado, students must show proficiency in English and math. Using SAT scores is the most common way that districts offer students to meet that requirement, since the test is already administered to students in their junior year; ninth and 10th graders take the PSAT. But officials couldn’t say how many students were relying on the test result to meet the graduation requirements this year.

The proposed change the State Board is considering would lower the minimum passing score on the math portion of the SAT from 500 to 480. Without that change, officials say the percentage of students who can use their SAT score to meet graduation requirements will drop from 45% in 2023 to 39% with these results. That means about 3,400 students might be looking for a last-minute alternative to meet graduation requirements before May.

If the board agrees to lower the passing score to 480, it would mean 45.5% of students who took the test could use the score to meet their graduation requirements, roughly the same as last year.

State Board members started Thursday’s discussion hesitant about the idea of lowering the bar for graduation, but ultimately their comments leaned in favor of the change. Education department staff are continuing to gather more data about the impact, and will ask the State Board to vote on the proposal next month.

Joyce Zurkowski, the Colorado Department of Education’s chief assessment officer, has been sharing concerns about the SAT scores with the State Board for months as preliminary results were previewed by state school officials. Final school and district level results were just released Thursday.

Compared to 2023, the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations on math tests dropped for students in grades 9-11. (Colorado doesn’t test 12th grade students.) Scores fell across all student subgroups.

Among 11th graders, the percentage meeting expectations dropped to 31.1% this year from 35.2% in 2023, and it’s down from 39% in 2019. In the reading and writing portion of the tests, some student subgroups’ scores improved; officials are not considering changing the required passing score — 470 — for that portion of the test.

Zurkowski has said that while it is possible some of the drops in math scores reflect drops in learning and student abilities, it’s likely that some of the decline is due to changes to the SAT, which went fully digital for the first time last year. It’s not possible to distinguish how much of the change in scores is due to each factor, she said.

Students who were in 11th grade last spring and took the SAT for the first time digitally might have been expecting that their performance on the PSAT the previous year would be predictive of their scores on the SAT in 11th.

“They were, I’m going to suggest, surprised when that prediction did not work out the way they were expecting it to work,” Zurkowski said. “I would encourage you to keep that in mind”

Lisa Escarcega, a State Board member, said the 3,400 students who could be forced to find an alternative way to meet graduation requirements if the board doesn’t lower the cut score is a “significant” number.

“It’s much larger than I thought,” Escarcega said.

Instead of reaching certain SAT scores, students can meet graduation requirements to show mastery in math or English by earning passing scores on certain concurrent enrollment classes, doing capstone projects, or earning specific industry certificates. There are also a number of other tests students can take.

Not all districts offer all options however, and state officials worry that some students’ options now could be limited.

The state may also consider taking more time to work with the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and institutions of higher education to come up with a new cut score that represents the same level of proficiency as previous cut scores. But officials said that may take years.

Only around a dozen other states use the SAT for all students as an annual test the way Colorado does. But education department staff will share data next month on how Colorado’s score drops compare to those other states.

Colorado officials also spent the summer evaluating whether the lower high school SAT scores would be valid for use in this year’s school and district ratings. The state ultimately determined they will be used. The preliminary ratings will be out next month.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.