Students in Floyd County Schools have once again scored above the state and national averages on the SAT.  The Floyd County SAT class of 2008 scored 1518 compared to the Georgia average of 1466 and the national average of 1511.  Results of the SAT, the test widely used for college admission, was released on Tuesday, August 26 by the College Board.

Floyd County students achieved a verbal score of 513, a math score of 504 and a writing score of 501.  Floyd County outdistanced the state on each section of the test and bested the national average in verbal and writing.  The state scored 491 on verbal, 493 on math and 482 on writing.  The national average was 502 verbal, 515 math and 494 writing.  This is the third year of the revised SAT.  The revision to the test added a writing section for prospective college students in 2006.

Floyd County Schools has experienced significant gains over the last five years in verbal and math scores.  The system has also experienced success in the overall score since the writing section was added to the test.  Over the last five years, the system verbal score has increased by 6 points and the math score has increased by 4 points.  The overall score, since the inception of the writing component, has increased from 1464 in 2006 to the 2008 score of 1518.  To achieve the SAT gains, Floyd County Schools made a number of academic enhancements over the last five years.  Academic enhancements included an increase in the number of advanced academic courses available to students, the system partnered with Cambridge to provide SAT prep classes, the Honors College Prep advanced academic program was started, and the system introduced Georgia's first electronic classrooms that allow one teacher in a high school or middle school to teach students in all of our middle and high schools. "It is great to once again see our students score above the state and national average on the SAT," stated Dr. Lynn Plunkett, superintendent of Floyd County Schools. "Strong SAT scores are a product of having a rigorous curriculum available to our students beginning as early as middle school."

Three of the four high schools in the system scored above the national average. Armuchee High showed the most significant gain with an increase of 40 points over last year. Armuchee students posted a score of 1574 (532 verbal, 522 math and 520 writing) on the test.  Armuchee High also posted the highest score in the system this year.  Model High students scored 1518 (510 verbal, 506 math and 502 writing); and Pepperell students scored 1512 (499 verbal, 515 math and 498 writing.)  Coosa High students outperformed the state but dipped below the national average for 2008 with a total of 1478 (511 verbal, 480 math and 487 writing.)  Coosa High has exhibited consistently high performance on the SAT in recent years as Coosa was awarded one of the first Governor's Cups for SAT improvement in 2004 and won the region title in the Governor’s Cup SAT competition in 2007.  Summary statistics include results at the national, state, system, and school level are available on the Floyd County Schools’ website at www.floydboe.net

Floyd County Schools has made the following enhancements in the academic program in recent years to improve student performance:

• Addition of honors level classes
• Increased expectation for student achievement
• Continued improvement in SAT Prep classes offered at all high schools as part of the regular curriculum
• SAT Prep classes (taught by Cambridge Educational Services staff) offered during Intersession periods at no charge to the students
• Extensive training for English and mathematics teachers in test preparation by Cambridge Educational Services
• Increased emphasis on vocabulary in all core classes
• Increased use of SAT format in instruction
• Guidance and counseling focused on preparation and readiness for SAT
• Emphasis on summer reading
• SAT prep activities incorporated into daily instruction including: SAT word of the day, SAT math problem of the day, etc.

The SAT can be taken by any student, even if they have not been on a college bound course of study in high school. Students can take the test multiple times to improve their score during their high school career, but only the last score recorded by a student is used for SAT reporting purposes by the College Board. Colleges and universities use the student's best score for admission. Each Floyd County high school encourages students to take the test more than once to improve their standing for college admission. The College Board report does not reflect the best score of a student or a school class.

The College Board discourages the use of SAT scores to rank states, districts, and schools.  Although the SAT is a strong indicator of trends in the college-bound population, it should never be used alone for such comparisons because demographics and other non-school factors can have a strong influence on scores.  Factors, such as courses studied in high school, family background, and educational level of the parents, can have significant influences on scores.  By studying other indicators, such as retention rates, graduation rates, number of higher level academic courses taken by SAT test-takers, and scores on other standardized assessments, educators can use these data, in conjunction with SAT scores, to make data-driven decisions that impact curriculum and instruction.