The downward trend in SAT scores among the state's high school seniors surely signals there's room for improvement in the way Hawai'i schools prepare students for college.

What it does not signal is reason for panic. Wholesale upheavals of school curricula in pursuit of better test scores would be placing too much weight on the college entrance exam as the sole indicator of success.

In fact, colleges and universities are moving away from heavy reliance on such tests in making their admissions decisions.

It's in this context that Hawai'i educators — public as well as private — need to gauge student performance on the SAT, which has declined for three years in a row.

Public school officials in particular should take a closer look at scores for its students, which were below the national average.

Some believe the problem stems from changes in the SAT, which was revised three years ago to add a writing component and which now demands mastery of grammar. Nationally, schools have de-emphasized grammar in their curricula; in Hawai'i, writing proficiency in general has not been stressed as it should.

If the SAT gives schools the incentive to elevate writing skills, it's a benefit that this test has raised the bar in a culture where teens make do with text messaging and similar shortcuts. Regardless of test scores, efforts to improve the rigor of composition instruction will yield their own rewards in boosting student readiness for careers.

These efforts should continue, whether or not colleges change the way they factor in applicants' performance on the SAT, which many already have done.

A study by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing reported that more than 750 U.S. colleges are treating standardized test scores as optional factors in their final student selection. Many have found that testing is an insufficient means of gauging student potential.

Schools plan to give younger students access to the practice SAT test, and that's fine. But concerns about the SAT should not loom so large that they distract schools from their primary mission: providing a well-rounded education. Under No Child Left Behind, there's already been enough "teaching to the test" as it is.