Georgia’s SAT Scores Fall for Third Straight Year and Continue to Trail National Averages

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The Georgia Department of Education recently released the 2009 SAT scores for Georgia students. Georgia students continue to trail the nation in SAT achievement, high school on-time completion, and in national assessment tests.

According to a story by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), overall, Georgia seniors scored an average of 1460 out of 2400 points. That’s down 6 points from last year. Nationwide scores were down 2 points.

Black and Hispanic students performed slightly better than in previous years, but a significant achievement gap persists. The achievement gap begins at the earliest testing phases and continues throughout the grades. CRCT scores for 2007-2008 show that black and Hispanic students lag significantly behind Asian and white students in reading and math.

More than 40 percent of black 3rd-grade students did not meet math standards.

Fifth- and 8th-grade black students also performed much worse than their peers.

Georgia school systems, teachers, and parents should pay close attention to the early warning signs of the achievement gap. Third-grade reading scores are widely viewed as a harbinger of educational success. Targeted interventions to the students who already lag behind their peers would give all students an equal opportunity for educational success.

Read the GPB story.

AJC reveals top 25 Ga. high schools by average SAT scores.

Download Georgia’s school-level 2009 SAT scores.

Georgia State Superintendant of Schools Kathy Cox discusses the 2009 SAT results.

Read College Board story about the 2009 national SAT results.

Get Georgia school system and county-level data.

Contact:
William Valladares
Communications Coordinator
404-527-7394 (x114)

william@gafcp.org