Students scored higher than the state and national average — as they have done before — but, this time, they stayed above an improved national average.
By:Al Wicklund
MONROE — Monroe Township High School students, who took the Scholastic Assessment Test this year, met a national challenge, Sharon Vogel, a school district administrative assistant, said Sept. 14.
She said students scored higher than the state and national average — as they have done before — but, this time, they stayed above an improved national average.
The SAT test, devised and supervised by Educational Testing Service of Lawrence Township, is intended to be a measure of a student’s potential for success in college.
Ms. Vogel gave the district’s annual report on testing, including this year’s scores, at the Board of Education meeting Wednesday.
Her report showed Monroe students exceeding the scores of the state and nation in the SAT’s verbal and mathematics sections and in the total score.
The statistical data has the Monroe students’ year 2000 scores on the verbal section of the test at 506. The state average was 498 and the national 505.
Monroe’s edge was greater in mathematics where its students had a 530 average compared to the state’s 513 average and the national 514.
The total figures for the two tests were Monroe, 1036; New Jersey, 1011; and the nation, 1019.
For the nation, the score was slightly higher than the scores posted in the last four years. The previous high was a 1017 in 1998. The lowest national score in recent years was a 1013 in 1996.
Ms. Vogel said students scored well on other tests as well.
She said the Class of 2001 also did well on the state’s High School Proficiency Test. Students must pass the HSPT in reading, writing and mathematics in order to qualify for graduation next spring.
Ms. Vogel’s report found that of 200 students who took the reading test as juniors last school year, 192 passed. In math, 194 of 199 passed the test, while 188 of 199 were successful in writing.
The students who didn’t pass any aspect of the HSPT will have opportunities to take the tests again this school year.
“In fact, across grade levels, students consistently scored in the top one-third in the nation,” she said.
Ms. Vogel said credit for the testing success should go to the teachers and parents who work with the children on a daily basis and, of course, to the children themselves.