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BY BETH QUIMBY
MaineToday Media, Inc. 05/01/2008

MaineToday Media, Inc.

Maine's use of the SAT college entrance exam as an achievement test -- part of a state effort to get more high school students thinking about college -- has gained final federal approval.

Maine has been using the SAT for the past three years to determine whether high school juniors are meeting state achievement standards.

Initially, the U.S. Department of Education withheld approval of Maine's use of the exam, citing concerns that it did not adequately test students on Maine's learning standards.

Maine education officials added 18 math questions to the test, and the change satisfied federal regulators.

Maine joins 29 other states with achievement tests now approved under the No Child Left Behind Act, a 2002 federal law aimed at making schools more accountable for students educational achievement.

Maine is the only state in the nation using the SAT. It was selected in the hope that more students would pursue a postsecondary education if they took the SAT before leaving high school.

Michigan and Illinois use the ACT, another widely used college entrance exam, to test their high school students.

Educational Commissioner Susan Gendron said a number of other states, including Indiana, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado have expressed interest in switching to the SAT and may do so now that Maine's use of the test has been approved.

"We are leading the country," Gendron said.

Maine students also take the PSAT, a preparatory test for the SAT, twice. The state pays for all three exams and provides free online test practice for all Maine students. The state spends about $1 million on the SAT program, about the same as the cost of the former achievement test.

Gendron said it's too soon to determine whether administering the SAT to all juniors has resulted in more students going on to postsecondary education after graduation.

Saturday, close to 97 percent of this year's high school juniors will take the SAT.

Educators at South Portland High School, which has been requiring students to take the SAT for four years, say it has played a major role in boosting participation in post-secondary education by South Portland graduates, said principal Jeanne Crocker.

Eight-five percent of South Portland high schoolers enroll in postsecondary education after graduation, compared to 60 percent before the school made SATs mandatory. The school also offers a semesterlong test preparation class and requires all students to visit a college, which has also helped increase the number going on to higher education.

Statewide, 75 percent of Maine high school students took the SAT before the it became mandatory.

Statewide average test scores were expected to drop significantly once all students started taking the test because more lower-achieving students would be added to the mix.

However, scores only dipped slightly, said Gendron. For the 2007 graduating class, the statewide average test score -- combining both verbal and math sections of the exam -- was 1,372 compared to 1,495 nationwide.

Forty-two percent of the country's students take the SAT, and Maine's SAT participation rate is the highest in the country. New York, where 85 percent of the high schoolers take the SAT, is second.

Gendron said the mandatory SATs have helped educators better determine the educational needs of Maine students. For example, the tests have shown nearly one-third of Maine juniors are capable of taking college-level calculus.

Some students said they take the SATs more seriously than the previous achievement tests, known as the Maine educational assessments, or MEAs.

"With the MEAs, students were not motivated, but the SATs I know I need," said Nicholas Doane, a senior headed to Keene State College in New Hampshire next year.

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