<p>The spread of SAT scores has narrowed, not necessarily the mean.<br>
You just need to look at the 25th percentile at most elite colleges. </p>
<p>For Swarthmore, as late as 1999-2000 according to their CDS 40% of entering freshmen had a CR SAT score of less than 700 and 44% a math SAT score of less than 700.</p>
<p>In 2007-2008, less than 29% scored less than 700 on the CR SAT and less than 36% scored less than 700 on the math SAT. </p>
<p>*In 8 short years, well after the 1995 SAT recentering, there were 27% fewer below 700 CR SAT scorers and 18% fewer below 700 math SAT scores. Hard to argue the spread has not narrowed! *</p>