Possibly the best thing about the latest report on SAT results in Harford County is that, on the whole, the scores have been consistent over the past few years and appear to have improved over the past quarter of a century.
Though it's not easy to compare this year's results with those of 25 years ago because the test and how it is scored have changed substantially, it does appear improvements have been made. By the same token, school system officials point out that it makes more sense to compare scores over the long haul than from year to year.
It is, however, worth making a few observations about the SAT scores as reported school by school in Harford County. Not surprisingly, Bel Air, C. Milton Wright, Fallston, North Harford and Patterson Mill high schools saw, on average, the best scores, while Aberdeen, Edgewood, Harford Tech, Havre de Grace and Joppatowne high schools were on the low side, on average. As usual, this reflects the county's economic divide. By and large, the east side is financially less affluent than the west and north, and less affluent historically has been on par with relatively low academic performance.
That said, it's also worth noting that the SAT average scores for each of the county's high schools were relatively close to each other. Those that didn't meet or beat the state and national averages were at least within a few points of that average.
But what does it all mean? That's not necessarily easy to say. Not everyone takes the SAT because not everyone plans to go to college. And presumably the folks who are college bound are among the most academically inclined in their respective schools. Yet the east-west gap in Harford County remains, even though presumably folks who would really drag the average down probably aren't taking the test.
Possibly the best lesson that comes out of the SAT results, at least from the prospective of the school system, is that it reiterates the existence of an east-west performance gap. It's easy to blame such a gap on social and economic issues beyond the control of the school system, but then again, the school system doesn't necessarily make the situation any easier.
Though not all teachers feel this way, some are willing to put their time in at lesser performing schools so they can transfer to better performing schools after they have experience. That the school system would be warm to this seems a bit counterintuitive as it would make more sense to assign experienced teachers to schools where the need for experience is greater.
In other words, maybe there are social and economic issues at play, but that doesn't mean the school system isn't also playing into a self-fulfilling prophecy through some of the practices it has allowed to evolve.
Eliminating the east-west gap in Harford County Public Schools should be a major goal of the school system. With that kind of goal in mind, maybe in 25 years scores will continue to be on the upswing across the county.