A certain Groundhog Day quality accompanies fall with the opening of schools and the inevitable release of SAT scores. While the Bill Murray comedy made light of the existential hell of a life lived like Sisyphus, the College Board's data dump each fall leaves little to provoke even a smile.
In 2000, David Grissmer confronted the publication and uses of SAT data:
"There is a unique issue in public policy associated with the publication and use of aggregate SAT test scores. The publication of aggregate score averages for schools, school districts, states, and the nation need not be done to carry out the primary purpose of the test: the sorting of individuals in the college admission process. However, annual SAT average scores have been routinely published at all levels since the 1960s. These scores receive widespread media coverage at every level because they provide easy and, in many cases, the only available comparative score data among local schools and school districts and among states. Because SAT scores are given at the end of K-12 education, they are often seen as providing indicators of the quality of the K-12 education system....
"Such use of SAT scores would be beneficial if the scores reflected accurately the quality of schools and school systems. Unfortunately, the aggregate SAT scores, at best,