A Real Downer

Inside Higher Ed today has a feature story on falling SAT scores.  There has been a long-term decline over the past 20 years since the test was change, the report indicates:

...College Board officials have long cautioned against reading too much into a one-point gain or one-point drop in a given year, but over the years since the new SAT was introduced, the average total score has fallen by 20 points, and scores have fallen in all three categories...

A chart from the article is below.  The full article - which also has data by race.ethnicity - is at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/25/sat-scores-are-down-and-racial-gaps-remain

Watch where you fall:

Update: The LA Times has a related article at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-sat-reading-score-20120924,0,2438626.story

and the College Board (that gives the SAT) has a report at:

http://media.collegeboard.com/homeOrg/content/pdf/sat-report-college-career-readiness-2012.pdf