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Children from the most affluent South Carolina families lagged further behind their peers in other states on the 2006 SAT than low- and middle-income children, according to an analysis of data from the College Board.

And while South Carolina high school students continued to score near the bottom of the nation on the test commonly used as a college admissions gauge, the state's racial gap continued to narrow and remains smaller than most.

South Carolina students from families earning more than $100,000 a year scored 68 points below peers nationally. Those with income below $10,000 were 63 points below peers nationally and all other income groups trailed their peers by 21 41 points, according to College Board data.

"The attitude that it's just some schools and some children bringing the average down is not the case at all," said Ashley Landess, spokeswoman with the South Carolina Policy Council.

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"The elite of South Carolina do the most to drag down the average with respect to achievement compared to other states," said Andrew Coulson, director of the Cato Institute on Educational Freedom, who performed a similar analysis in 2005.

But Pete Pillow, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said it only takes a few poor scores "to make everybody go down."

Students from wealthier families may be less concerned about preparation for the SAT as students from middle income and poorer families who need certain scores to qualify for scholarships, Pillow said.

Students from the wealthiest families had the highest scores; they were just not as high as scores of students from affluent families elsewhere.

However, the state's comparatively smaller racial test score gap is smaller only "because whites in South Carolina perform worse, not because African Americans in South Carolina perform better," Coulson wrote in a 2005 student achievement study for the South Carolina Policy Council.

South Carolina is improving, but "when you start out behind you have a longer way to go," Pillow said.

In South Carolina, white students' average scores decreased by eight points, while African-American scores decreased by six points. The national average for all students fell by seven points.

Scores of Asian-American students rose 10 points in South Carolina.

Nearly 9 percent more Hispanic South Carolinians took the SAT, and their average scores improved by nine points, reflecting a national trend.

Hispanic students are narrowing the gap, although there is "a long way to go," said Melissa Lazarin, senior education policy analyst for La Raza.

"There continue to be significant differences in (SAT) scores by ethnicity," and over-reliance on the test "may be detrimental, particularly to groups who tend to score lower," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

At D.W. Daniel High in Central, where a diverse student body includes children of professors at two nearby universities and a technical college as well as students who will be the first in their families to attend college, students are assigned to advisors who stay with them, as their home room teachers, through their high school career.

"That gives them time to form a relationship so the teacher knows the student's goals and abilities and can help the student and parents make their choices," said Principal Sharon Huff.

There's a big difference between basic high school graduation requirements and what students need to prepare for college, Huff said.

Current state standards may not be rigorous enough to prepare students for college and for 21st century success, said former state secretary of education Barbara Nielsen, now an educational consultant.

"We have got to take an honest look at where we are. We have to take some sort of innovative measures to bring our children's achievement up," Landess said.

Coulson, a proponent of school choice, said there isn't enough competition "forcing" public schools "to find new and better ways of educating children.

South Carolina's Education and Economic Development Act, which calls for individualized graduation plans, will help students focus and choose high school courses more carefully, Huff said.

Under the 2005 legislation, students will start thinking in elementary school about what they want to do beyond high school with a plan they'll revisit and revise annually to help them stay on course, Pillow said.

Whether students plan to go to four-year or two-year colleges, directly to careers or into the military, having a plan will help them to understand that education "is not kindergarten to 12th grade," Pillow said. "Something comes after that."

College-bound students will know early on that they need to take more challenging courses, develop math skills and do more writing and reading.

Virtual AP courses will expand choices for students, particularly in small high schools, through online classes from other high schools or colleges.

Instead of requiring the traditional "seat time," high school students will be allowed to test out of classes if they already have the knowledge so they can take other classes they are interested in instead, Pillow said.

High schools also will expand opportunities for students to earn school credits in the workplace, as an offshoot of service learning.

The new trend in the state's public schools will be more flexible to other options, Pillow said.