(I am posting this here because apparently Art Woolf closed comments on his below referenced blog without me having a chance to do a response to a response. The gist of my argument is simple: it makes more sense to explore Vermont’s SAT test results based on income than race or other minority status.)

Here is the link to Art Woolf’s post that got me going down this path: http://www.vermonttiger.com/co…

In short Mr. Woolf poopoos any contention that the Vermont education system is proving itself yet once again by claiming we can attribute our SAT success story to nothing more than Vermont being a mostly “white” state.

I say no, and I say the numbers support me – not Mr. Woolf.

Before you read the following, you should read the Vermont Tigger post ….

Art … an interesting claim, and quite correct about Vermont’s median income. That isn’t, however, what my “much lower” description was referring to – I was referring to the great increase in the number of folks from $100,000+ plus households that were taking the test. Obviously I failed to make that clear, but I stand by that statement.

But it is those numbers and the fact that Vermont is actually in the middle of the country median income wise that makes a comparison of SAT scores by income much more pertinent than scoring by skin color or other minority status.

Here’s a quick comparison of two states with similiar SAT populations but a wide variance of median income …

Median incomes:

Vermont …….. $51,809

New Hampshire .. $67,508

(All the below comes from links taken from http://professionals.collegebo…

Percentage of test takers that were “Black or African American”:

Vermont …….. 1%

New Hampshire .. 1%

Mean reading/math/writing = average of means for “Black or African American”:

Vermont …….. 469/460/462 = 464

New Hampshire .. 478/474/463 = 472

Mean reading/math/writing = average of means for all SAT test takers

Vermont …….. 519/523/507 = 516

New Hampshire .. 521/523/511 = 518

Mean reading/math/writing = average of means for “White”

Vermont …….. 524/525/511 = 520

New Hampshire .. 520/522/510 = 517

Interestingly enough when one views the income level of test takers, one finds that Vermont has higher percentages of test takers in the lowest four economic ranges ($0 – $80,000), but New Hampshire picks up the lead for anything above $80,000. Even more telling is those lower four subgroups provided 61% of Vermont’s test takers but only 51% of New Hampshire’s. Conversly the $80,000 and up group in New Hampshire comprised of 49% compared to Vermont’s 39%.

These two states have almost identical demographic descriptions by percentage ( http://quickfacts.census.gov/q… and http://quickfacts.census.gov/q… and both states had pretty much equal percentages of the under 18 population taking the SATs.

This is a good apples to apples comparison, and the above comparison shows that all other things being fairly equal Vermont’s education system is helping young adults move on into their adult lives well prepared academically.