Board: State's gains on SAT best in nation

Easley High SAT Math Prep teacher Mike Lesley holds up an old copy of the PSAT for his students Tuesday at the school. He uses the old tests as practice for his students to improve their SAT scores. Staff/Owen Riley Jr. e-mail this story Related Related stories: • Tougher SAT in works Online extra • Upstate school-by-school results

South Carolina seniors scored an average 989 on the state's most popular college admissions test, up from 981 in 2002.

The state's scores still lag 37 points behind the national average of 1,026.

But the gap is closing.

South Carolina has increased its score 38 points over the past five years, an increase that the College Board, the company that oversees the test, said is the nation's best. The national average rose just nine points during that same period.

Greenville County's high schools were up seven points to 1011. Five of the district's 14 high schools — Wade Hampton, Mauldin, Eastside, J.L. Mann and Riverside — scored about the national average.

Riverside was the state's highest scoring traditional high school. Only Charleston's Academic Magnet High and the Governor's School for Math and Science scored better.

Pickens County's score dropped four points, but still equaled the national average. Oconee County was above the national average at 1,041, while four of the five Anderson County districts bested the state average.

"We're closing the gap between our state average and the national one," said state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum of the gap that had hovered around 60 points for years. "We still have work to do, but our progress has been steady and substantial."

Only the District of Columbia and Georgia had lower average scores.

Gov. Mark Sanford praised students, parents and teachers for the gain, but said the state's education system keeps it from reaching its full potential.

"What I want to see are even bigger changes that free up those students, parents and teachers to realize even greater progress in achievement levels," said Sanford, who has pushed giving schools more flexibility in spending state money and vouchers.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, credited the state's push in the 1990s to bring back-to-basics curriculum to the classroom, higher standards and increased technology as factors in improving scores.

"We've said from the beginning that we must help our students raise their scores to meet the standards — not lower the standards to meet the scores," he said. "The jump in SAT scores proves that when you make schools accountable, get parents intimately involved in the education system and provide students the incentive to achieve, they can and do rise to the challenge."

Lorin Anderson, an education professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on testing, said the rise in SAT scores doesn't show that state schools are getting better because not every student takes it.

Instead, it's symbolic that South Carolina doesn't have to be at the bottom of the heap when it comes to education, he said.

"It shows what's possible within education in South Carolina," he said. "If we can put our mind to this and have the highest growth rate in the country, then what other goals in education are now within reach?"

South Carolina's push to improve SAT scores have included regional training for teachers, the General Assembly's funding of the PSAT for all 10th-graders and a statewide SAT competition, Tenenbaum said.

Many schools, like Easley High, also hired SAT consultants and have daily SAT questions in math and English classes.

Easley High math teacher Mike Lesley told the dozen students in his SAT prep class Tuesday to concentrate on the easy and medium difficulty problems.

"If you do a decent job with that, you get a 500," he said.

Armed with the Kaplan SAT preparation book and a calculator, the students practiced problems and learned to read the multiple choice questions carefully.

Kourtney Patrick, 15, a sophomore, knows the pressure's on. She took the SAT as a seventh-grader and needs a higher score to get into USC.

"I think it will probably calm me down for it. I won't be as nervous," she said. "I'm going to continue taking it until I get the highest score."

In Greenville County, six schools had gains ranging from 17 points at Travelers Rest to 45 points at Greer.

Trustee Leola Robinson credited a push by the board and Superintendent Bill Harner to get students to take more Advanced Placement courses and more rigorous courses all the way down to middle school.

"The fruits of that plan are manifested in increased test scores," she said. "We need to push the rigor down to the lower levels."

Other state scores show:

— average verbal score improving five points to 493.

— math scores rising three points to 496.

— boys raised their scores 10 points to 1,010. The score for girls rose six points to 971.

— black students increased their scores eight points to 847.

— students who take the 20 academic courses recommended by the College Board came in with an average of 1,045, or 56 points higher than the state average.

Cindy Landrum covers education and can be reached at 298-4303.