State may trade MEA for SAT Shift could boost college attendance

LEWISTON – The Maine Department of Education is considering replacing the Maine Educational Assessment exam with the SAT for 11th graders, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron announced.

Gendron believes the SAT could gauge how well students meet state education standards while helping to boost college attendance.

“We think it’s doable. We’re really pushing this,” Gendron told a conference Thursday at Bates College, where more than 150 state officials and education leaders gathered to discuss ways to increase college attendance.

Only 37 percent of Mainers 25 or older have a college degree, while the New England average is 45 percent, University of New England President Sandra Featherman said. In order to meet the New England average by 2020, Maine will have to add 40,000 college graduates, according to the Maine Compact for Higher Education.

State officials, an independent researcher and the College Board, the company that oversees and distributes the SAT, have spent months studying the issue.

They believe the SAT matches Maine’s education standards and can replace the state’s own test, Gendron said. She believes a few other states, including Michigan and Illinois, have adopted a college entrance exam as the standardized test.

Maine already requires high school students to take the Preliminary SAT, or PSAT, but that test is not used to show which students meet state standards.

Gendron will meet one more time with test officials, but she said she is “99.9 percent sure” she will make the change. She will report her findings and plans to the Legislature’s education committee this fall, but she does not need legislative approval.

Swapping the MEA with the SAT would mean one less test for the 77 percent of students who already take the MEA for the state and the SAT for their college applications. It will also mean one free SAT for all juniors because the state will pay for that test rather than the MEA.

Gendron also hopes the change will get all teenagers thinking about college. “We need to tell our students, ‘It’s when and where you’re going to college, not if,”‘ she said.