THE NEWS DESK
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Some area schools top state SAT average
See the charts:
• Scores for individual high schools
By PAMELA GOULD
Students at Culpeper High School and Colonial Forge High School exceeded the national and statewide averages on all three tests of the SAT college-entrance exam for 2012, according to results released Monday.
Culpeper High students had the highest combined score among the Fredericksburg region’s public schools, at 1,569.
“We’re very pleased with those scores,” Culpeper Superintendent Bobbi Johnson said after getting the results.
She said the school has been working on SAT preparation with students and “beefing up” instruction. But she said she wants to work with school administrators to get a clearer idea of what may have led to the improvement.
Virginia’s high school seniors as a whole and across all ethnic groups outperformed the national average on all three tests that make up the SAT in 2012.
The College Board, which administers the SAT, released state and national results on Monday. The Virginia Department of Education distributed results for individual schools and divisions.
The statewide average for public school students on critical reading was 508, 17 points higher than the national average. The state average for math was 510, five points higher than the national average. Virginia students averaged 492 on the writing test, 11 points higher than nationally.
A perfect score on each test is 800, for a possible total of 2,400.
The 113 seniors at Culpeper High who took the SAT recorded an average score of 537 on the critical reading test, 524 on the math test and 508 on the writing test, data from the Virginia Department of Education show.
Colonial Forge students were among the region’s top performers for the third year in a row. However, their combined total of 1,554 was 15 points below the Class of 2011.
The Class of 2012 scored an average of 523 on reading, 522 on math and 509 on writing. Some 383 students took the test.
Fredericksburg Academy, a private school in Spotsylvania County, again had the highest scores in the region.
All 28 of Fredericksburg Academy’s seniors took the exam and had scores well above the state average, for a combined total of 1,779.
They scored an average of 595 on the reading test and the writing test, and 589 on the math test.
Fredericksburg Christian High School students also surpassed the state and national averages in 2012, with a combined total of 1,559.
On the critical reading test, students at Brooke Point, Mountain View and North Stafford highs in Stafford exceeded the state average, as did those at Riverbend in Spotsylvania. Stafford High equaled the state average.
The only other area school to exceed the state average on an individual test was Liberty High in Fauquier County, which had a 514 average on the math test.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said new testing standards being implemented in Virginia translate well to college entrance exams.
“These are the very critical-thinking and higher-level reasoning skills students must have for success on today’s SAT,” she said in a prepared statement.
The SAT is the dominant college entrance exam for students in Virginia.
Board of Education President David M. Foster said the state emphasizes preparing students for college as well as 21st-century skills.
“The board takes seriously its duty to ensure that students graduating from a Virginia public school are prepared to succeed in college and the workplace,” he said in a statement.
The 2012 results for Virginia students showed an increase of three points in the average score on the math test compared with 2011, a decrease of one point on the critical reading test, and no change in the writing test.
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
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