After an increase in SAT scores a year ago, the Effingham County school system experienced a drop in the scores for the class of 2010.

Average SAT scores for 2010 across the state saw a dip from the previous year, although Georgia’s SAT participation rate was 74 percent, among the top 10 in the nation. While Georgia’s mean score dropped from 1,460 to 1,453 from 2009 to 2010, Effingham saw a 14-point drop from 1,441 to 1,427. 

 

The SAT is an aptitude exam made up of three parts worth 800 points apiece, mathematics, critical reading and writing, the newest section of the test. Math section scores across the system increased by a point for 2010 but critical reading scores fell eight points to 479 and writing scores decreased by seven points to a 460 mean.

 

Effingham’s curriculum coordinator Judith Shuman said, however, that the writing portion is not included in the admissions formula for the Georgia Board of Regents, although it may be used informally.

 

“More than half of all high schools, the College Board tells us, experience a mean score change of at least 10 points up or down from one year,” Shuman told the Effingham County Board of Education at its meeting Wednesday afternoon. “So a 10-point change in not atypical for a high school.”

 

 

For the complete story, see Friday's edition of the Herald.