“This is the first time that all three high schools exceeded the national SAT score on the traditional Verbal and Math averages of the test, and the first year that our school system as a whole exceeded the national average,” said Superintendent Bass.

“That follows more than a decade of improved performance. Those trends are very good for our community, and it means our students are being prepared well to enter high school, and our high schools are preparing students well to enter college.” East Coweta High School showed the highest gains from 2007 to 2008, with improved average scores in all three test areas for an overall SAT 1 score of 1502. That is 21 points over ECHS’s overall average of 1481 in 2007. ECHS’s Math and Verbal average (which is the traditional measure of the SAT) was 1018, exceeding the national average of 1017 by one point.

Newnan High School and Northgate High School both exceeded the national average overall SAT 1 score, with scores of 1526 and 1520 respectively. Northgate High improved its average in Verbal and Writing scores this year. It was fifth year in a row that NGHS surpassed or matched the national average on the exam since 2004.

Newnan High improved its average on the SAT 1 Writing test by 13 points, improved its Verbal average slightly, and dropped back on its Math average, for an overall score of 1526 (1022 on Verbal and Math combined). It was the second year in a row, and the third time since 2002, that NHS surpassed the national average on the SAT.

When all Coweta County SAT 1 test-takers are averaged together, the county’s Verbal scores increased last year by 5 points, Math scores remained the same, and Writing scores increased by 5 points in 2008.

“That shows very good overall performance on the SAT 1, and it’s significant for us for several reasons” said Wayne Outlaw, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum for the school system.

“First, it continues a trend of our high schools showing consistent improvement on the SAT for over a decade, even while a very high percentage of our students take the exam every year. Our high schools have improved since the 1990’s on their overall SAT performance, and their gains have come faster than the state of Georgia and the nation, which is why we overtook the national average this year.”

“Second, our schools and system scoring above the national average puts us over the 50 percent mark considering all SAT 1test-takers. So wherever Georgia may rank overall on the SAT 1 scale, Coweta County would rank much higher on the sorts of national comparisons we see every year.”

“Third, many of the states which rank at the top of the SAT averages do so with only 5 or 10 percent of their students taking the SAT 1 – typically the students in the top 5 or 10 percent of their classes. Taking the SAT 1 is much more common in Georgia and Coweta County. So we rank above the average even with a very high participation rate.”

“That means our high schools are doing well in a very broad sense. But it also implies to me that our top-performing students are competitive with the top students anywhere in the nation, and that our high schools are competitive on that level as well,” said Outlaw.

“This didn’t just happen in one year, or even in the three or four years these students have been in high school,” said Bass.

“These students’ performance this year was a culmination of 11 years of school and hard work on their part, and many years of hard work on the part of our schools and teachers.”

Bass noted that Coweta County has outscored the state average on the SAT since the 1990’s, and that meeting the national SAT average has been the goal ever since. High schools have emphasized vocabulary, math and critical thinking skills in their curriculum, and offer strong Advanced Placement selections and SAT preparatory courses in pursuit of that goal.

“Now our task is to keep building on what our students and high schools have accomplished, and maintain and improve our performance,” he said. “But we can take some satisfaction that, increasingly, we aren’t competing against the state or the national average, but against ourselves, and measuring ourselves against higher standards.”

A chart (link to chart) detailing local, state and national SAT scores since 1995 is included with this report. Combined math and verbal sections of the test are included to compare pre-2006 iterations of the SAT.

Students may take the SAT 1 multiple times. The College Board reports the scores of seniors taking the test during the past scholastic year, and reports only the most recent score if a student takes the test again during the school year. A student’s total score tends to rise between a first and second taking of the test, particularly with additional preparation.