COLUMBIA – South Carolina high school seniors in the Class of 2008 raised their average SAT scores by two points, the College Board said today.  Seniors continued a dramatic improvement trend on college Advanced Placement exams.

South Carolina seniors’ average composite score for critical reading, math and writing was 1,461, up two points from 2007.  The national average stayed at 1,511.  Critical reading was 488, math was 497 and writing was 476, compared to national averages of 502, 515 and 494.

The College Board, which tracks 10-year SAT trends, said the state’s 34-point improvement since 1998 in reading and math (the writing test is only in its third year) remained the nation’s best among states where more than half of the high school seniors take the SAT.  Vermont was second with a 30-point improvement, while North Carolina was third with a 25-point improvement.

South Carolina students continued their improvement on the College Board’s Advanced Placement tests.  An all-time high of 15,362 scored high enough to earn college credit, a 3 percent increase over last year’s 14,922.   The number of exams attempted rose from 26,117 to 26,872, also an all-time high.  The percentage of students scoring 3-5 stayed the same at 57.1.

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said that although African-American students continued to make major strides in closing the “achievement gap” with white students on Advanced Placement tests, the gap widened on 2008’s SAT results.

“It’s vital that we get a grip on this,” Rex said.  “We need to replicate these dramatic AP achievement gap successes in other areas.  We need to focus on approaching every class the way we’re approaching AP classes – with quality teachers, top-notch teacher training, clearly understood goals and high expectations for kids.”

In the last five years, the number of AP exams taken by South Carolina African-American students increased from 1,545 to 2,258, an increase of 46 percent.  The number of African-American students scoring high enough to earn college credit increased during that same period from 496 to 620, a 25 percent increase.

In 2008 alone, the number of South Carolina African-American students who took AP tests increased by 11 percent, and the number whose scores qualified for college credit increased by 5 percent. 

Rex said more students should be taking the preliminary SAT test (PSAT), which provides useful feedback to students and educators alike.  The state pays the testing fees for both the PSAT and its ACT counterpart, PLAN.  The State Superintendent urged students and their parents to take advantage, and he encouraged school districts to pay for the practice test that the state doesn’t cover. 

Rex said PSAT and PLAN results are underutilized by high schools.  He noted that the test results boast a wealth of useful data on students’ academic strengths and weaknesses that can be used to: ?  Find “holes” in school curricula so that improvements can be made.  ?  Identify students who might perform well in Advanced Placement classes.  ?  Help guidance counselors work with students on skills that need extra attention.  ?  Help career counselors work with students under the provisions of the Education and Economic Development Act.  In cooperation with parents and counselors, each high school student creates a personalized graduation plan centered on his or her goals.  That plan includes selecting an academic focus – a “career cluster” – that organizes high school coursework around each student’s individual strengths and interests. 

Rex noted the 126-point difference between 2008 South Carolina seniors who took the College Board’s recommended courses before taking the SAT and those who did not.  “It’s important for guidance counselors to work with students and their parents to make sure that kids take high-quality courses before they take either the ACT or SAT.”

Additional 2008 South Carolina SAT highlights ?  This is the third year for data from the newly redesigned SAT, which now includes a writing section, tougher math problems and more reading analysis.  It takes 45 minutes longer – a total of nearly five hours, including breaks – to complete.  Scoring on the three sections – math, critical reading (formerly known as verbal) and writing –ranges from 200 to 800 points, so that a perfect score is now 2400 instead of 1600.  ?  The average SAT math score of South Carolina’s 2008 high school seniors was 497, compared to the national average of 515.  The state’s average critical reading score was 488, compared to the national average of 502.  The average score on the new writing section was 476, compared to the nation’s 494.  ?  Slightly fewer high school seniors in the Class of 2008 took the SAT than in the previous year, a decrease of 1,015 students (from 24,081 to 23,066).  The percentage of seniors taking the test was 61 percent.

?  Hispanics in South Carolina outperformed their counterparts nationwide on all three SAT subtests, by a total of 67 points.  There was a 10 percent increase in the number of South Carolina Hispanics taking the SAT, on the heels of a 23 percent increase last year. 

Top performers 

Eight South Carolina districts had average SAT composite scores –critical reading, math and writing – that exceeded the national composite average of 1,511: Anderson 1 (1,540); Anderson 2 (1,567);

Anderson 4 (1,540); Barnwell 45 (1,514); Lexington 1 (1,543);

Lexington/Richland 5 (1,537); Spartanburg 1 (1,528); York 4 (1,558).

Forty schools had composite reading, math and writing scores that surpassed the national average: Aiken High (Aiken) 1,521; South Aiken High (Aiken) 1,526; Palmetto High (Anderson 1) 1,547; Wren High (Anderson 1) 1,537; Belton-Honea Path High (Anderson 2) 1,567; Pendleton High (Anderson 4) 1,540; T.L. Hanna High (Anderson 5), 1,524; Barnwell High (Barnwell 45) 1,514; Hanahan High (Berkeley) 1,589; Stratford High (Berkeley) 1,521; Academic Magnet High (Charleston) 1,855; Charleston County School of the Arts (Charleston) 1,608; James Island High (Charleston) 1,513; Wando High (Charleston) 1,569; Lewisville High (Chester) 1,537; Central High (Chesterfield) 1,545; Chesterfield Senior High (Chesterfield) 1,521; Mayo High (Darlington) 1,610; Waccamaw High (Georgetown) 1,568; Eastside High (Greenville) 1,537; Greenville Tech Charter High (Greenville) 1,543; James L. Mann High (Greenville) 1,535;

Riverside High (Greenville) 1,614; Academy for the Arts and Sciences (Horry) 1,526; Aynor High (Horry) 1,620; Green Sea-Floyds High (Horry) 1,575; Camden High (Kershaw) 1,538; Lexington High (Lexington 1) 1,589;

Chapin High (Lexington/Richland 5) 1,531; Dutch Fork High (Lexington/Richland 5) 1,574; Seneca High (Oconee) 1,523; Tamassee-Salem High (Oconee) 1,600; Walhalla Senior High (Oconee) 1,533; D.W. Daniel High (Pickens) 1,551; A.C. Flora High (Richland 1) 1,520; Spring Valley High (Richland 2) 1,529; Landrum High (Spartanburg 1) 1,626; Fort Mill High (York 4) 1,558; Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, 1,749; and Governor’s School for Science and Math, 2,057.

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