SAT scores still at low level

It is easy to look at this data and see bad news, but it really suggests a very positive direction when you consider there is a 30 percent increase in the number of people taking the examination. Students are now realizing the value of taking the test and the data is becoming more reflective of what is really happening in American education versus merely highlighting the performance of children whose parents are able to provide them with private school educations or the best tutors to achieve great scores. I hope we see a 100 percent increase in the number of students taking the SAT in the next ten years because that will suggest that teachers and parents are encouraging a new cadre of capable students that it is okay to be intellectual. My biggest worry is that the hip-hop (gangbanger) persona was causing fissures in the future strength of the nation by being anti-education suggesting being dumb is a badge of honor. This thinking is socioeconomic suicide.