PSAT cutoff

Descartesz
Fri, 25 May 2012 12:19:24 +0000

Projections that cutoff scores will go down are premised on the fact that they were historically high in many states last year and that the “high-scorer” cutoff this year, which is based on the national pool, went down from 202 to 200 this year.

Some here look at the per-state score data released by the College Board, compare it to the previous years, and make inferences about how cut-offs will fare. This is something of a black art, however, as only per-section data, not combined scores, are released by the College Board. In addition quotas for each state vary year-to-year based on high school graduation rates.

In addition, this might be particularly unpredictable this year because, if I recall correctly, the way of measuring graduation rates was just standardized across all states in this past year. This might make a noticeable difference in how quotas are allocated this year and, thus, affect cut-off scores.

(A quick search found, for example, these articles:

AL: Fewer Alabama high school students graduating under new formula; Huntsville city only 66 percent - al.com;
NJ: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/high-school-graduation-rates-have-dropped-statewide-under-new-formula/article_051bca92-93d9-11e1-a20c-001a4bcf887a.html
NM: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/ef039e03b4084e2582dd5498feaee34e/NM--Graduation-Rates/

As the last article states the reason for moving to the “cohort” method the article mentions is that new federal regulations have required it. States that have already been using this method will be relatively unaffected, but those that don’t might see their NMSF quotas change. I should add that I am uncertain as to what data the NMSC uses to allocate NMSF slots.)