ATLANTA — The national average SAT score declined for the class of 2007, but scores in SAT-dominant Southern Regional Education Board states declined less, in results released today.
The average combined SAT score, which includes mathematics, reading and writing, went down in every SREB state in which high school graduates predominantly take the SAT except Delaware, which remained the same as last year at 1479.
The national average combined score was 1511, down 7 points from 2006 — the first year that included the writing portion of the test.
One SAT-dominant SREB state beat the national average — Virginia, which had an average combined score of 1520. Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia were among the states with upward trends over the past decade, although those states saw declines in this year’s scores.
SREB’s Challenge to Lead Goals for Education call for more students to take college admission tests, to score higher on those tests and for SREB states to reduce gaps in test scores among all groups of students.
For more information about improvements in college admission tests scores in SREB states, contact SREB Communications or see Improving ACT and SAT Scores: Making Progress, Facing Challenges, which analyzes 10 years of test-score data and trends across the region, at www.sreb.org.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
