I was curious tonight so I began reading the 2010 College-Bound Seniors Total Group Profile Report (PDF), which includes data on 1.59 million college-bound students who took the SAT. One of the charts, Table 25, interested me so I put the data into an Excel spreadsheet, created an aggregate column, and then ranked the SAT scores of various intended majors, splitting them down the middle into the above average and below average.
Click Image to Enlarge
Some of the results are to be expected. It wouldn’t matter, particularly, what SAT score a culinary arts major earned because he or she may have extraordinary talent in the kitchen that doesn’t correlate with standardized math or reading comprehension. It is a different type of intelligence and skill.
The scariest revelation of all is the fact that the nation’s educators are below average as measured by preparation prior to entering college. The people supposed to be teaching this exam aren’t doing well on it compared to others. That’s horrifying. That means the best and the brightest are not, as a whole, attracted to the field (there are always exceptions – I myself had some brilliant teachers and professors throughout my life to whom I am incalculably grateful). But then again, nearly everyone has known the education system in this country is outdated and ineffective because it was designed for a post-industrial-revolution world that brought people off the farms and into the factories. That world no longer exists. The notion that children should be education by age instead of by individual merit when all children are not equal in all disciplines is absurd. The college system works better.
In specific terms, for 2010:
- The mean Critical Reading score was 501. Education majors scored 481.
- The mean Mathematics score was 516. Education majors scored 486.
- The mean Writing score was 492. Education majors scored 477.
That is pathetic. If anything, these results would lead me to believe that if you are a great teacher, you probably want to pull your hair out at the absurdity of the system and your colleagues.
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Reader Comments (12)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
Gilvus
December 3, 2011
Fortunately, not all people who get an education degree become teachers. In fact, the best teachers I've had didn't have education degrees! They were chemists, engineers, consultants, and journalists who got their teaching certifications later. Alternatively, they were professors who never stepped out of their field of expertise, but picked up teaching skills along the way.
A teacher needs more patience than critical thinking skills when teaching the younger age levels.
Gilvus
December 3, 2011
I could be wrong, but I think the copyright on your image is invalid unless you put a date after the ©.
Joshua Kennon
December 3, 2011
Replying to Gilvus
Good eye! I appreciate you pointing that out but the good news is, it doesn't matter anymore, I just included it for link reference. Here is the source from the United States Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf
"U.S. law no longer requires the use of a copyright notice, although it is often
beneficial. Prior law did, however, contain such a requirement, and the use
of a notice is still relevant to the copyright status of older works. This circular
describes the copyright notice provisions enacted in the 1976 Copyright Act
(title 17, U. S.Code), which took effect January 1, 1978, and the effect of the 1988
Berne Convention Implementation Act, which amended the law to make the
use of a copyright notice optional on copies of works published on and after
March 1, 1989. Specifications for the proper form and placement of the notice
are included.
Works published before January 1, 1978, are governed by the previous copyright law. Under that law, if a work was published under the copyright owner’s
authority without a proper notice of copyright, all copyright protection for that
work was permanently lost in the United States. "
Gilvus
December 3, 2011
Replying to Joshua Kennon
Cool, thanks!
Tricia Drake
December 6, 2011
This doesn't surprise me. "the best and the brightest are not, as a whole, attracted to the field" . . . not shocking, it is well known that teaching is a pretty thankless and underpaid job.
I don't think being below average on test scores makes someone a bad teacher . . . in fact, someone who struggled to learn the material in the first place would have certain advantages when explaining the material to students, and would probably have more patience with struggling students. Looking back on all my teachers, the best teachers had certain traits that are hard for me to pin point, but I'm not sure that exceptional intelligence was a critical trait.
Coleen McGarry-mcdonald
April 7, 2012
Joshua
You need to look more closely at this data. First of all, your comment that those who are supposed to teach the SAT skills score below average - that is if they majored in education. Many secondary teachers do not major in education, instead they major in their discipline. In fact many of my colleagues at the high school where I teach English were all English majors. Now, if you look again at your data, you will note that English/Letters/Foreign Language/ Mathematics/ Science majors are actually in the top four or five groups. So, before you discount an entire profession, you might want to research how many secondary teachers( specifically high school since that group more than any other group is responsible for preparing students for the SAT) majored in their discipline and either minored in education to meet certification requirements or took the required classes needed to be certified. As a veteran educator of twenty six plus years, I can tell you that the teachers I have encountered who majored in their discipline often had much deeper content knowledge and critical thinking skills than those who were education majors with a focus on "history, or English or Science."
K
November 16, 2013
Replying to Coleen McGarry-mcdonald
Coleen, you are right! My husband teaches Advanced Placement Calculus to high school students. He majored in Mathematics and sat right next to the engineering students. His minor was education. His ACT score was a 28. He is not an unusal case. He also is a fantastic teacher! There are many just like him!
Lota Living
September 9, 2014
Really good information! I wanted to let you know that I linked this site on my post titled "No Teacher Left Behind" at lotaliving.com. Your information was exactly the last piece I needed, and felt you presented it well. Thank you!
Tuci78
June 28, 2015
What surprised me in that referenced article was the contention that the “Health Professions and Allied Clinical Services” category (embracing a whopping 18% of study subjects) should fall into the “below average” half of the rankings.
Inasmuch as that cadre would – I should think – include all of the kids electing pre-med as their reason for entering undergraduate studies, and EVERYBODY knows that pre-med students are not only pretty frelkin’ smart but “greasy grind” workaholics from childhood, what the heck is dragging the performance results in that category DOWN so much?
Nursing students?
I always thought that requiring nurses to get baccalaureate degrees (BSN) was a great stupidity. Most of the best of ’em with whom I’ve worked over the years have been diploma-school graduates, and never had to suffer the grinding idiocies of a Liberal Arts curriculum to satisfy requirements designed to foist the fiction that there’s any benefit to the patient as the result of a nurse being “broadly educated.”
Threnody
June 30, 2015
Replying to Tuci78
I'm not convinced the brightest people, or even the next to brightest people, are aiming at self torture for little recompense (medicine) any longer. The brain drain continues wherever government starts sprinkling the strychnine of price controls and regulation.
Zthomm
June 29, 2015
A better table would be SAT by actual major degree awarded. Intended major does not indicate the actual completed major, and includes college dropouts. Although interesting, this information doesn't indicate the aptitude of those actually involved in the fields listed.
montana83
June 30, 2015
The problem with our 'unionized child abuse centers' aka government schools is not so much that teachers have average IQ's, it is that they voted for Obama about 99 to 1 and use utterly biased teaching materials. I am sure the USSR had some smart Communists, but I don't want my kids near these people.
There are very few colleges or universities today where you can speak your mind in a discussion w/o being labeled or silenced. Everyone knows this. Your prof may be smart but what difference does it make.