Education officials blamed the state?s declining SAT scores on students who were ill-prepared to handle higher-level math questions.
“If you can?t pass algebra and then can?t take Algebra II, you won?t do well on the SAT,” said Nancy Grasmick, state schools superintendent.
In Maryland, Algebra II is not a requirement to graduate.
Officials also attributed the drop in scores to the growing number of students taking it.
“Principals in high schools have this dilemma: Do I aggressively encourage more students to take it or do I want to avoid a headline that says scores are dropping?” said Jim Foran, the state?s director of high school and post-secondary initiatives.
More Maryland students take the college-entrance exam each year, with black and Hispanic students increasingly among them, said Roni Jolley, the state?s liaison to the College Board, the company that creates the test. A total of 46,558 Maryland high school seniors took this college-entrance exam this year, compared with 45,231 last year and 44,458 in 2005.
The number of Hispanic students taking the test jumped 20 percent this year, while the number of black students increased 13 percent.
Some education officials trumpeted how 70 percent of students took the exam this year, compared with the national average of 48 percent.
“As a former college admissions officer, I think it?s good that we are encouraging students who are the first generation in their families to go to college and students of color to take the test,” said Rosa Garcia, a state board of education member.
“Colleges recruit students based on lists of students who take the test. We are actually limiting college access to students of color and first-generation students if they don?t know about these opportunities.”
A push to grow the number of students taking the test could backfire, others argued.
“Encouraging students to take the tests when they aren?t prepared is the wrong approach. They could just become discouraged when they don?t do well,” said Richard Goodall, a state board of education member.
Students complain the newly revised, four-hour test, which now includes higher-level math and writing sections, is difficult.
“Students who are well-prepared or underprepared or in the middle, all of them are not having an easy time with this,” said Craig Meister, an admissions consultant for college-bound students.
