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Date: Fri 13-Sep-1996

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Date: Fri 13-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

SAT-scores-Kuklis

Full Text:

GENNEWS

Local SAT Scores Draw Qualified Praise

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

This year's Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) results are in, and Newtown

school officials are encouraged. But a note of caution tempers their

enthusiasm.

The good news is that a total of 190 students from the Class of 1996 took the

test (representing a participation rate of 87 percent), and their average

scores in both the math and verbal sections of the test showed a 24-point and

30-point margin, respectively, over average scores earned by students from

other Connecticut high schools.

Newtown seniors achieved an average of 528 on the math section of the test and

an average of 537 on the verbal section. The highest possible score on each

section is 800.

State averages for the 1996 SAT test were 504 and 507, respectively; national

averages were 508 and 505, respectively.

"Should we feel good about that? Yes!" said Assistant Superintendent Robert

Kuklis from his office Wednesday afternoon.

"It means that we've achieved certain goals here - through emphasizing reading

throughout the system and stressing the importance of taking advanced

placement (AP) courses and college prep courses," Dr Kuklis said.

The assistant superintendent explained that the SAT test is really designed to

predict what a student's success in college might be and not necessarily how

successful the Newtown schools are in their mission of preparing students for

life beyond high school.

There are many external factors, he called them "indicators," that students

learn outside of Newtown classrooms and that might affect performance on the

SAT test.

Family background and socio-economic level would be two such indicators.

"We're faced with a broader challenge here, to educated a middle class

population having high expectations for its students.

"How do we do this, with less money?" he asked.

"I see that as out biggest challenge. And we must accept no excuses in meeting

it," he added.

The not-so-good news about this year's SAT scores, as Dr Kuklis pointed out,

was that the numbers might be slightly "skewed" because, for the first time

since the test was developed in 1941, the norm, or median score, had been

adjusted slightly downward to reflect current performance.

When the test was first developed in 1941, it was created to replace a written

exam and very few students actually took the test, he said.

Fifty-five years later, the numbers have grown astronomically. Connecticut's

participation rate for the 1996 SAT test was 79 percent, with 25,562 students

taking the exam, second only to Massachusetts, with an 80 percent

participation rate.

For some reason that the New Jersey Educational Testing Service has not

pinpointed, the median number has dropped below 500 (on a scale of 200-800),

according to Dr Kuklis. This year's adjustment, or "renorming" is, therefore,

an attempt to address that fact.

But there's no denying the good news, he said. "It's the spread."

Newtown's higher level of achievement over state and national levels is real,

Dr Kuklis concluded, and it deserves a reserved measure of praise.

Newtown guidance counselor Don Elliott also greeted the test results with

guarded pleasure.

"These are numbers that we live and die by," he said, referring to the SAT

scores, "but there's more to it than this."

He agreed with Dr Kuklis' opinion that many factors contribute to success in

college or a career in the workplace, and SAT scores are only one way of

measuring a student's readiness for either experience.

Mr Elliott pointed out that of the 220 students from the Class of 1996 who

graduated last spring, 78 percent went on to a four-year college and 8 percent

went to schools for two or three-year training.

"That's a total of 86 percent going on for higher education of some sort - a 3

percent jump over last year," Mr Elliott said.

There was no doubt in his mind, he said, that Newtown parents and students

were becoming increasingly college-oriented.

Reporting by the Associated Press was used in the preparation of this story.

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