Classroom Techniques for Improving Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores

Abstract

For three years, a reading program at Springside School in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, has attempted to improve verbal scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. The results favor students who elect a reading course in eleventh or twelfth grade over those who do not take this course. The effect of this reading program was measured in each of three years by comparing an experimental group of students to a matched control group, 76 in all. The experimental group was comprised of students who elected the reading course. The control group contained an equal number of students whose eleventh grade SAT verbal scores were similar to those of students in the experimental group. The only difference between the two groups was that one group took the reading course and the other did not. The effect was