Students Bombed This Year's SAT

The nation's SAT results are in, and they're not good. Numbers are down in all three sections, among both male and female students, reports Inside Higher Education. The average score was 1490 out of 2,400, down seven points from last year and the lowest since the test got revamped a decade ago, reports the Washington Post. Some takeaways:

• Reading: The score of 495 hasn't been this low since the College Board, which owns the SAT, began putting out annual reports in 1972.
• Math: The score of 511 is the lowest since 1999.
• Writing: The score of 484 is the lowest since this section was introduced in 2006.

• Racial, income gaps: White and Asian students continued to post higher scores than Latino and black students, and students from richer families did better than those from poor families.
• ACT more popular: About 1.9 million took the ACT, compared with 1.7 million who took the SAT.

"Simply doing the same things we have been doing is not going to improve these numbers," says Cyndie Schmeiser of the College Board. "This is a call to action to do something different to propel more students to readiness." A new version of the test gets rolled out next year. Among other things, it will no longer feature a mandatory essay. (More SAT stories.)