There have been a number of different and (it seems to me contradictory) stories on education in the news recently.

First, we have news that the SAT scores are falling:

Lancaster County SAT scores

Some speculate that more students are taking the test and I have noted from time to time that the real under reported story is how few people are taking the test McCaskey was up from 43% to 51%. Many districts have between 50% and 60% taking the test. Some, like Manheim Central have 43%. Yikes!!! When Veritas reports numbers it usually includes all students, because even if someone is not planning on going to college immediately, we tell them to take the test just in case they change their minds.

Second, we have the news that PSSA scores are going up:

Local PSSA scores going up!

Now, I am not an advocate of standardized testing. We do well on them, but I think that they are a fairly poor assessor of students. In a society that blinds itself to everything that cannot be turned into a multiple choice question is it any wonder that we have such trouble making hard decisions that require wisdom and evaluation of complex (non-binary) choices?!?! My concern is that these two standardized tests are returning data trending in the opposite direction.

This would seem contradictory, but it is not necessarily so. The SAT is gauging college readiness. This seems to be slipping. The PSSA tests demark the need for summer school remediation. We are doing better at these. Could the data be telling us that we are pulling down the top and raising the bottom? It might be saying this. It would be nice to have some analysis on this point. Were this analysis done (I wish I had the time) the next pertinent questions might be: Can our society continue to exist if we educate toward this middle (i.e., if we prepare kids inadequately to go to college, but adequately enough to avoid summer school remediation). I am guessing that we know the answer to this one!