While a recent article in the Detroit News noted that the average scores on the SAT, a standardized test taken by juniors as part of the college admissions process dropped from 2019 to 2022 for the state’s top ten high schools, De La Salle Collegiate Assistant Principal Christopher Dean, ‘89, notes that DLS did not follow the statewide trend. 

Read Detroit News Article

The Detroit News identified the state’s top ten high schools, but the rankings do NOT include any parochial or private schools, such as DLS. 

The SAT is a standardized test taken by seniors as part of the college admissions process. Students take the exam at various times throughout their senior year. 

SAT Stats and Deadlines

Dean said the DLS scores for the SAT averaged 1103 during the 2019-2020 school year, but rose to 1128.8 during the 2021-2022 reporting period. 

That 1128.8 score places DLS second in Macomb County, just below the top school,  the International Academy of Macomb (Chippewa Valley Schools), at 1226.4. 

Dean said, “While the article discusses how the pandemic negatively affected the overall educational experience, that was not the case for DLS. If anything, many of our students exceeded their peers’ performance in the public schools.”

Dean points to De La Salle continuing classes with barely a break in 2020. 

When COVID-19 hit the world in March 2020, Dean noted that teachers took less than a week of instruction to recalibrate, restructure and familiarize themselves with the Google Meet platform, part of the Google suite that DLS has used for several years. 

Instructional Technology Director Mrs. Sheryl Anderson prepared slides for teachers to learn the application, and also sent instructional emails to all students. 

In the Fall of 2020, while many schools remained closed, all DLS classes were in-person, in a block schedule format, and other scheduling adjustments that included utilization of all available space.  

“We went back to online instruction in November 2020, when schools across Michigan were ordered closed. We were completely dedicated to our mission of providing in-person education because we realized that meeting virtually was not the same educational experience even with our Google advantages,” Dean said. 

He added, “We had no control over COVID, but we could control our instructional time. That’s a large part in why we didn’t experience the same dramatic gap performance gap that we see elsewhere.” 

While Michigan has shifted toward the SAT as the test for college applicants, and the number of students taking the ACT test has declined, the DLS ACT scores have also improved, despite reports that ACT scores have dropped significantly to their lowest level in 30 years.

Read AP Story on ACT Scores

Dean said that DLS ACT scores for the 2018-2019 school year averaged 21.1, and increased to 22.9 for the 2021-22 year.