A high percentage of high school graduates plan to continue their education: More than seven out of 10 Pennsylvania high school graduates plan to continue their education after high school.
Among the best in the nation of students performing in college: Pennsylvania ranks fourth in the nation in the percentage of full-time college students who complete their bachelor’s degrees.
Student Achievement Tests (ACTs): Pennsylvania ranks 11th on the average ACT scores, and 47th in the proportion of students who take the ACT. Inasmuch as Pennsylvania has one of the lowest proportions of students taking the ACTs, an overall higher ranking among states is not unexpected.
Student Achievement Tests (SATs): Pennsylvania ranks 36th on the average SAT scores, and 13th in the proportion of students who take the SAT. Inasmuch as Pennsylvania has one of the highest proportions of students taking the SATs, an overall lower ranking among states is not unexpected.
- In 2015, across all states there was a strong inverse relationship between participation rates and both SAT and ACT scores, i.e. the greater the percentage taking the test, the lower the score. For this reason, it is not appropriate to use either SAT or ACT scores to compare states.
- The College Board, the organization that sponsors the SATs, says it is invalid to use the SAT to compare states.
- Statisticians from Education Testing Service (ETS), the organization that produces the SATs, have written extensively about why the SAT is an invalid measure for ranking states that cannot be statistically rehabilitated.
Both the SAT and the NAEP tests are produced by Education Testing Services (ETS). ETS specifically warns against using the SAT to compare states and has developed the NAEP tests expressly for the purpose of comparing states.