The tests cannot tell us whether students have mastered a challenging body of knowledge and skills because norm-referenced tests only compare students to each other and not to an unwavering standard of performance. Student scores on the SAT also are invoked to compare the quality of education in one state with that of another. But this too is misleading. Reasoning Test was designed to predict whether students are likely to succeed in the first year in college. Only a portion of a state's students take the exam and that percentage varies widely from one state to another.
Some states have higher average scores because they have relatively few students taking the test.
This says nothing about the quality of their education systems. In addition, the SAT does not reflect whether young people have mastered the knowledge and skills that a state has identified as important. What teachers teach and what the SAT tests may be two different things. One predictor of student achievement is whether students take a college-preparatory sequence in high school. According to data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, students who take a core academic sequence perform better than those who do not, and they are more likely to earn a postsecondary degree.