> While we're discussing how much worse things have gotten, please indulge me
> a panglossian moment: the status of women has gotten lots better over the
> last generation.
Which, of course, means that there are a LOT more students out there acheiving at the high end.
My question -- which I really and truly would like to have answered -- is why there's such a gap between the perceptions registered on this list, and the following accumulation of objective data regarding students going on to graduate school, based on 4 major tests.
This is summarized from a brief section in *The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, asnd the Attack on America's Public Schools* by David C. Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle. Addison-Weley Publishing Company, 1995.
1. The GRE: “Aggregate GRE Test scores fell slightly from 1965 through the early 1970s, but thus was also a period when the percentage of students taking the test doubled. Since 1971 the percentage of students taking the GRE have not varied greatly, but average GRE scores have gradually risen. What this means is that average total GRE scores are now roughly the same as they were in the 1960s--despite the fact that the percentage of students taking the GRE now is more than twice what it was a generation ago.” (p 38)
The increase was from about 17% of graduating BAs to about 37% in 1992.
“In 1982 the GRE added a third subtest to its battery concerned with analytic ability. The latter instrument is designed to measure ‘higher-level’ thinking skills: i.e. those associated with reasoning rather than factual knowledge. Aggregate GRE scores for the analytic-ability subscale have also climed over the past decade and are now about thirty scale points higher than they were in 1982.” (p 38)
2. The Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) is taken by seniors wanting to enter colleges of business administration.
* In 1966, 40,153 students took the GMAT with an average score of 485
* Over the next few years GMAT scores fell slightly, as the number taking the test soared.
* Since then, scores have risen gradually.
* In 1992, 231,356 students took the GMAT, with an average score of 494. (p 40)
3. The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is taken by college seniors wanting to enter law school.
* LSAT scores actually increased from the mid 60s to the early 70s, when other scores were declining slightly, even though the number of students taking it also increased dramatically.
* In 1962, 25,660 students took the LSAT, with an average score of 483.
* In 1972, 119,391 students took the LSAT, with an average score of 521.
* Scores have continued to rise, but exact comparisons are impossible, since different scoring systems were adopted in 1983 and again in 1992. (p 40)
4. The Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) has appeared in the 3 different versions. Before 1978 it consisted of four subtests.
In 1966, 19,700 students took the MCAT, with the following average score:
* 519 on Verbal Ability
* 548 on Quantitative Ability
* 515 on Science Knowledge
* 541 on General Information
In 1975, 57,627 took the MCAT. Average scores rose in 3 out of 4 categories:
* 541 on Verbal Ability (up 22 points)
* 583 on Quantitative Ability (up 35 points)
* 567 on Science Knowledge (up 52 points)
* 527 on General Information (down 14 points)
Since 1978, when the first new scoring system was instituted, scores have remained fairly constant. (p 40)
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"