Butler County students deserve praise for beating state averages on SAT scores, but a few local school districts also get a nod for their approach to the test.

According to results released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the 2018 average among Butler’s seven primary school districts ranged from 1060 to 1160 (out of a possible 1600) on the test.

The average result among state public schools is 1047, but rises to 1086 when including private schools.

The national figure, according to standardized testing group College Board, is a score of 1068.

On average, Butler students exceeded state averages and, in most cases, the national average on the SAT. Students in the county deserve a round of applause for their efforts.

At the same time, local school districts are taking an approach to the test with which many educators would likely agree.

The debate has long raged as to whether standardized testing is efficient in preparing students for higher education.

Many educators have argued that an emphasis on the test has helped to improve students’ test-taking skills, but done little to encourage learning or critical thinking.

Some of the pros of standardized tests have been that it provides a benchmark for teachers to determine how well a student is doing compared with their fellow pupils and that it provides subjective grading.

However, the cons appear to be more convincing — standardized testing can be stressful for students and affect their confidence depending on their test-taking abilities; teachers end up “teaching to the test” rather than providing students with a deeper understanding of a subject, thereby creating a limited scope of learning since the tests only measure such areas as reading, writing and math; and the test is not a good evaluation tool as it does not consider how much a student has grown over time.

Alfonso Angelucci, Slippery Rock School District’s superintendent, said all of the district’s students take pre-SAT tests, but that standardized testing doesn’t dictate teaching strategies.

“Our emphasis is on student learning,” he said. “If test scores rise as a result of that, that’s just a bonus.”

We agree. To find success in college and the workforce, students must learn to think critically, and not just figure out how to ace a test on limited — albeit important — subject matter.

In the Butler School District, the school board will soon begin a discussion on whether standardized testing is a “poor way to measure a school’s performance,” as Jack Schneider writes in his book “Beyond Test Scores.”

Testing is an important part of education. But it’s far from the only — or best — measure of a student’s performance, and we agree with educators that emphasis on standardized testing shouldn’t outweigh the numerous other methods that teachers have at their disposal.

— NCD