Georgia Ranks 46
By PATTI GHEZZI
Georgia has escaped the cellar on the SATs, the tests widely used for college admissions.
Results released Tuesday show Georgia's students performed well enough to lift the state to 46th place, up last year from a tie for last with South Carolina.
Relative success on the writing portion of the New SATs appeared to have helped raise the achievement level.
With the added writing portion, the new SATs have a total possible score of 2400. Previously, 1600 was a perfect score on the tests.
Georgia's overall score was 1477, which was lower than the national average of 1518.
The state remained last in math, with an average of 496 out of a possible 800. The state's score on the verbal portion of the test — now known as critical reading — fell three points to 494 of a possible 800.
Pennsylvania, Florida and South Carolina all scored lower than Georgia on the new test, with Hawaii pulling up the rear, according to results released by the College Board, overseer of the powerful college admissions exam.
The state's higher ranking is sure to cheer politicians and educators who have long lamented the state's low standing on the prestigious test.
Georgia's low SAT averages haves dogged the state for years, even though many experts in education believe using the rankings to rate states is unfair. Many states such as Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee favor the rival ACT, and the SAT is generally taken by higher achieving students in those states.
In Georgia, 70 percent of seniors take the SAT, even though only about half go to college or technical school, a curious trend that pulls down the state average.
All states with more than half their students taking the SAT suffered on the revamped verbal portion, even though the tricky analogies, which had plagued many students in the past, were eliminated.
On the writing portion — which included an essay — Georgia students posted an average of 487. That was higher than the average scores of students in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, South Carolina, Delaware, Hawaii and Nevada.
In 2005, Georgia students tied with South Carolina students for last place overall with an average score of 993 of a possible 1600, up six points from the previous year. The national average in 2005 was 1028.
SOURCE
Metro school district SAT scores
Published on: 08/29/06
SAT scores from metro school districts.
District Verbal Math Writing Overall
Cherokee 524 527 515 1566
Decatur 511 521 502 1534
Georgia 494 496 487 1477
Nation 503 518 497 1518
SOURCE
posted by ~Kesh @ 8/29/2006 11:07:00 AM
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