Fayette County students performed

well compared with the rest of metro Atlanta and Georgia as a whole on

this year's Scholastic Aptitude Test scores.

The school system's verbal

score is at 519, up five points from last year. The math score remains

the same at 532. The system's total score of 1051, a five-point increase

from the year before.

Fayette's systemwide average

is better than what students in Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton and Cherokee posted,

according to published reports. State Superintendent Linda Schrenko's

office released statewide results late Tuesday, and the Fayette County

School System confirmed Fayette's test scores shortly after that.

Nationally, Fayette students

scored 13 points higher on the verbal and 18 points higher on the math

sections of the test for a total score that is 31 points above the national

average.

"We feel that these scores

show that our college prep classes are right on track. Overall we are

very pleased with the results," says Stuart Bennett, assistant superintendent

of curriculum.

McIntosh students scored highest

in the county, with an average composite score of 1082, followed by Starr's

Mill (1067), Sandy Creek (1032) and Fayette County High (1018). All four

schools showed math scores averaging a bit higher than verbal scores.

McIntosh's average was down

slightly from 1102 in 2000, while the other three schools showed slight

increases overall.

Out of the four counties mentioned

above, only four schools met or exceeded McIntosh's average Roswell (1108),

Chattahoochee (1099) and Centennial (1082) in north Fulton, along with

Walton (1114) in Cobb.

Sandy Creek High School had

the largest jump in test scores in the county. The school's verbal score

is up 26 points from last year while the math score rose eight points

for a total score of 1,032 ­ a 34 point jump over last year's total

figure.

"Sandy Creek made a concerted

effort last year to improve their scores by initiating an SAT prep course.

These scores indicate that their time and efforts paid off," Bennett

says.

Approximately 83 percent of

Fayette's 1,320 graduating seniors took the SAT. Nationwide, 45 percent

of this year's 2.85 million high school graduates took the test.

On a statewide level, the results

from this year are somewhat encouraging, not entirely. A six-point gain

over last year brought the state average to 980 (491 verbal, 498 math).

That's the seventh straight year Georgia students have shown a gain on

the SAT.

But only South Carolina and

the District of Columbia rank behind Georgia on the national scale, where

the overall average is 1020. The next two states above Georgia are North

Carolina and Texas, according to Schrenko's office.

"Georgia's students have

proven they are making improvements in their scholastic achievement,"

said Schrenko. "Our students and teachers have worked hard using

reform tools that produce steady results."

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