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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The average SAT score in Florida has dropped to 948 in 2024, a full 18 points lower than last year and nearly 70 points lower since 2017, NBC affiliate WESH reports.
Paul Cottle, an FSU physics professor, told WESH he is concerned about the declining scores.
“It’s sort of a tragedy for Florida students, that they’re falling backward like this,” Cottle said.
Cottle said even at a university like FSU, he has had to teach math skills in his physics classroom because students aren’t prepared.
“I haven’t had to do that until the last few years,” he said.
“The most important thing we can do to address these SAT issues is to make a huge push to recruit more strong teachers into public schools in the state of Florida,” Cottle added, saying that while many school districts have increased teacher pay, experienced teachers aren’t seeing enough financial incentive to stay.
“Those teachers advance in experience, and they find they can’t boost their salaries enough to really support starting a family,” Cottle said.
While some blame the academic decline on the COVID-19 pandemic, Cottle said it started before that.
Despite concerns, Cottle told WESH he was optimistic about recent efforts to support schools after many ballot items for school support in Florida passed.
“Twenty-one of them were victorious, that tells you the people of the state of Florida, at least the voters of the state of Florida, support public schools and want to do what’s right for them,” he said.
