Georgia 47th in SAT, but numbers don't tell all

Georgia ranks 47^th in SAT scores this year. That’s down from 45^th last year. Georgia’s average SAT score was 1466 this year. Nationally the average was 1511.

Officials say the good new in the numbers is that Georgia’s African American and Hispanic students scored higher than their national counterparts. State officials say Georgia has to do better in Math and new curriculum should show results in a few years.

Meanwhile they warn that SAT rankings might be screwed. For Example, they say, Alabama does better than Massachusetts, mostly because only 8 percent of students there take the SAT. In Georgia 70 percent of students take the college entrance.

Revised social studies curriculum set for approval

State education officials hope approval of a new social studies curriculum will turn the trend of high failure rates in future re-testing of Georgia middle schoolers.

Thursday, Georgia'school board is expected to approve a new curriculum for 6th and 7th graders. The hope is students will fare much better than last year’s failure rate of over 70-percent.

The revised curriculum was open to public comment earlier this summer. Education officials say the responses came mainly from teachers, and opinions spurred some small changes.

Dana Tofig with the Department of Education says now the training of teachers on the new social studies material will begin:

"Some people may say, ‘well, the school year has begun and how can you introduce new standards when the school year has begun?’...but, these standards aren’t so radically different. It’s a lot of the same material covered in the 6th and 7th grade before…it’s just a little more precise".

Tofig also noted just-released results of ACT scores across the nation. Georgia moved-up three spots to 41st in the country. However, over 60-percent of high school seniors still choose to take the SAT. Those results come out later this month.

State leaders play pinball with SAT scores

State Democrats and Republicans are playing pinball with Georgia's lackluster S-A-T scores.

First, the facts: On average, Georgia students scored 1472 out of a possible 2400 on the S-A-T.

Gov. Sonny Perdue is looking at the bright side: Georgia has the fourth-worst scores in the nation, not the worst. Black and Latino students have outscored their counterparts nationwide.

But House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) takes the glass half-empty approach.

He notes average math and reading scores are the lowest they have been in eight years. He accuses Perdue of embarking on a public relations campaign to cover that up, while slashing state funds for education.

In turn, Perdue has blamed 130 years of Democratic rule for a "culture of negativity" that once made Georgia dead last in the SAT.

Now Porter is reminding Perdue that he was once a Democrat too.

Here are excerpts from their statements:

Gov. Sonny Perdue:

While the state of Georgia and the nation as a whole saw a dip in 2007 SAT scores, Georgia continues to have outstanding participation rates and our minority students are scoring higher than the national average for minorities. Our African-American and Hispanic public school students' average scores continue to outpace their counterparts around the nation with higher scores in most areas of the test.

Rep. DuBose Porter:

I'm not surprised. This is exactly the result I was expecting but until the public wakes up and finds out the truth behind the massive public relations campaign that these elected Republicans have been waging it will continue.

Perdue:

For more than 130 years, Democrats like DuBose Porter and his pessimistic friends presided over an educational system that was failing our students. Our graduation rates were dismal and our rankings on tests like the SAT were dead last….Rep. Porter's comments yesterday were disrespectful and insulting to Georgia teachers, administrators, parents, and most of all, our high school students.

Porter:

I think [teachers, students and parents] are doing amazingly well with $1.3 billion less in the state's education budget….Overall, the nation's graduating class of 2007 averaged the lowest math and reading SAT scores since 1999 and Georgia's average dropped five points from last year. Everybody does worse, but the gap narrows, and in the world of massive PR this is turned into a positive.

Top SAT schools announced

Today Governor Sonny Perdue and State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox congratulated the top 25 schools for SAT scores this year. The top-scoring school is in Richmond County, which includes Augusta. Test-takers at Davidson Magnet School averaged a score of 1,710. Northview High in Fulton County came in second, with Walton High in Cobb County third. Perdue and Cox also reminded public highschoolers that they take a free SAT Pres Class on-line. Scores released yesterday by the College Board rank Georgia’s SAT scores 46th in the nation.