Coweta County’s SAT scores for 2012 are in. The results show Northgate High School with an average score of 1,528, the highest average of the county’s three high schools.
Coweta County School System spokesman Dean Jackson said the SAT results at Northgate High topped the county list in 2012 with an average score of 1,528. Newnan High followed with an average of 1,475 and an average of 1,428 at East Coweta High. The combined county average was 1,476. That figure was 24 points higher than the state average, Jackson said.
The 2012 scores saw decreases from those in 2011 at East Coweta and Newnan and an increase at Northgate. The Northgate average in 2011 was 1,525 while the average at Newnan was 1,487 and 1,454 at East Coweta.
Next door in Fayette County, the average SAT scores at the five high schools included 1,633 at McIntosh, 1,456 at Sandy Creek, 1,516 at Whitewater, 1,438 at Fayette County High and 1,605 at Starr’s Mill.
Revised in 2006, the SAT has three sections – critical reading, mathematics and writing – each worth 800 points, for a possible high score of 2,400.
The Georgia Department of Education noted that 2012 saw the largest and most diverse group of graduating seniors in Georgia’s history take the SAT. The SAT participation rate for the Georgia class of 2011 was 81 percent, a 1 percent increase from the year before.
The SAT is a college entrance exam that is developed, administered and scored by the College Board. The SAT is designed to test the subject matter learned by students in high school and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in college.
The Georgia Department of Education indicted that student completion of a core curriculum and pursuit of rigorous course work are two critical components of college readiness, and the students who do so tend to perform better on the SAT. Georgia students who completed a core curriculum — defined as four or more years of English, three or more years of mathematics, three or more years of natural science, and three or more years of social science and history — did better on the SAT than those who did not complete a core curriculum.
