SAT reading scores are their lowest ever. What can we do about it now?

Results of last year’s SAT test are in and reading scores are lower than ever. Scores on the reading portion of the standardized test fell three points over last year to 497 out of 800 points total. Combined reading and math scores fell to their lowest level since 1995.

But there’s a good reason for this seemingly bad news.

More students than ever are taking the exam, including those from populations that have been under-represented on this nationwide college entrance exam. Around 27 percent of last year’s test-takers spoke a language other than English at home. A decade ago, that number was around 19 percent. So that’s the good news.

Not so good is that the number of black students taking the kinds of high school courses that are predictors of success on the SAT has fallen from 69 to 66 percent over the last 10 years. That number should be going up, way up. And that’s a factor, analysts say, in drop in this year’s scores. The good news there, though, is that even though fewer students are taking classes that would boost the scores, at least they’re taking the SAT, which indicates they plan to finish high school and go to college.

Here’s something I wonder about these scores: any possibility that lower test scores is just an indication that few students completed (expensive) test prep classes? Poverty rates are increasing and family incomes, except for the already wealthy are, in general, on the decline. What kind of impact have the optional Kaplan and Princeton Review, etc., had on scores in general?

SAT scores aren’t the only indicator of where we’re at in education. Other standardized tests reported scores that held steady this year over last, according to an MSNBC report on the SAT scores. So there’s that.

Still, is there anything the rest of us pre-SAT parents do in the meantime? Read! Read, read, read. Reading is sort of the answer to everything in education, if you ask me, and kids who get read to — even when they, themselves, can read well — benefit greatly. I’d also say we need to spread the reading around to other kids, whose parents either can’t read or don’t have time. Volunteer in school classrooms — and not just your destined-for-success kid’s fancy one. Support school libraries, public libraries, professional librarians and their reading programs. Give books as gifts and donations.

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