ALBANY — More of New York's secondary students than ever before are taking college placement tests. But scores on state students' SAT scores declined slightly in 2007 and remain below national averages.
Eighty-four percent of the state's secondary school students took the SAT last year, according to data released Tuesday by the College Board, which administers the SAT and Advanced Placement examinations used by colleges and universities to evaluate prospective students. Nationwide, this is second only to Maine, which covers exam fees for all its students.
"SAT and AP participation are up for all groups of New York State students," said Kathy Ahearn, acting state education commissioner, in a press release.
She noted that over the past five years, the number of Hispanic students taking the SAT has risen 67 percent, while the number of African-American students taking it has increased 37 percent.
"This growing expectation of a college education is a solid indicator that New York's emphasis on standards, rigorous curriculum, and quality teaching with a strong focus on high school graduation, is working to narrow the achievement gap," Ms. Ahearn said.
Average scores on the critical reading (formerly "verbal") portion of the SAT slumped to 488 in 2007 from 491 in 2006, while average math scores slid to 504 from 505. New York's average writing score for 2007 was 484; the score for 2006 was not available.
The national averages held steady at 502, 515 and 494 for critical reading, mathematics and writing, respectively, the College Board reported.
Boys performed slightly better than girls on the critical reading and mathematics tests, while the girls outpaced the boys on the writing exam. The boys' mean scores were 491 in critical reading, 521 in math, and 474 in writing, while the girls scored 486, 490 and 487, respectively.
New York ranked first nationally in percentage of students scoring 3 or better on AP exams. Hispanic students saw the greatest increase in the percentage scoring at least a 3, with a 7.5 percent rise over the previous year. Overall AP participation increased by 4.7 percent in 2007, the College Board said.
Students may opt to send their test scores to colleges of their choice. The five colleges to which the most New York students sent their scores in 2007 were Binghamton University, Stony Brook University, University at Albany, New York University, and University of Buffalo.
Private upstate colleges on the list included Cornell University (6th), Syracuse University (8th), Ithaca College (27th), Rochester Institute of Technology (32nd) and University of Rochester (37th).
Among SUNY campuses, Geneseo (14th), Buffalo (16th), Oneonta (17th), Cortland (18th), Oswego (26th), Brockport (28th) and Fredonia (40th) were the most popular.
Among north country colleges, SUNY Plattsburgh ranked 45th, while SUNY Potsdam failed to crack the top 45.
The most popular out-of-state schools, by number of students sending scores, include Boston University, Penn State University, Northeastern University, Boston College and University of Delaware.