Press Release

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Linda Dudderar, Chief Academic Officer, 301-475-5511, ext. 108

SMCPS SAT Results above State and National Averages

Over 50 percent of graduates participate in this assessment

Leonardtown, MD – St. Mary’s County Public Schools’ (SMCPS) students exceeded national and state averages on the newly revised Scholastic Achievement Tests (SAT) with an average combined score of 1532 out of 2400.

The SAT Reasoning Test is a measure of the critical thinking skills students need for academic success in college. The SAT assesses how well students analyze and solve problems. The tests are typically taken by high school juniors and seniors, and are designed for students who plan to attend four-year colleges. Results of these tests are used by colleges and universities to make decisions about the admission of individual students to their programs and to assess a student’s academic potential for success in college.

The SAT includes a Critical Reading, Math, and Writing section, and includes expanded math topics such as exponential growth, absolute value, and functional notation. The SAT places greater emphasis on topics such as linear functions, manipulations with exponents, and properties of tangent lines. The critical reading section, formerly known as the verbal section, includes short reading passages along with the existing long reading passages. Analogies have been eliminated, but sentence-completion questions and passage-based reading questions remain. The writing section includes both multiple-choice questions and a direct writing measure in the form of an essay.

SMCPS continues to have a large portion of its senior class take the SAT. The College Board reported that 50.2% of the school system’s seniors were administered the SAT assessment this year. This marks the third consecutive year SMCPS administered a record number of SAT assessments.

“We are extremely pleased with student performance on this year’s SAT and, in particular, with the number of seniors who took the college admission test,” said Dr. Michael J. Martirano, superintendent of schools. “The focused efforts of students, parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators allowed our students to perform at higher levels this year.”

Great Mills High School administered the SAT assessment to 50.8% of its senior class. Great Mills seniors scored a 476 average on the mathematics portion. This combined with a 476 average critical reading and a 456 average writing score gave Great Mills a 1408 composite average.

Leonardtown High School seniors posted scores above the state and national averages and administered a record number of SAT tests - increasing the number of senior test takers by 61 from the prior year. Over 64% of the senior class took the SAT. While administering more SAT assessments, the Leonardtown students exceeded last year’s average test scores. Leonardtown posted a critical reading average score of 524, a writing average score of 517, and a mathematics average score of 531, which gave Leonardtown a 1572 composite average.

Chopticon High School led all county schools in the mathematics and writing performance of the new SAT. Their average critical reading score of 524, average mathematics score of 547, and average writing score of 527 led to a 1598 composite average.

To encourage continued gains on the SAT, the school system has adopted the Official SAT Online Course through the College Board. This program, accessible by any high school student through any internet-based computer, allows students access to eight real SAT exams to help practice and refine critical reading, math, and writing skills, as needed. The program also offers eight real SAT essay prompts with instant scoring. The program can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by visiting www.collegeboard.com/satonlinecourseschool.

St. Mary’s County Public Schools

SAT Summary

SCHOLASTIC ASSESSMENT TEST SCORES, 2006-2008
ST. MARY’S COUNTY
	2006	2007	2008
Number of Test Takers	454	514	580
Critical Reading	512	505	511
Mathematics	522	517	519
Writing	500	494	502
TOTAL	1534	1516	1532
CHOPTICON HIGH SCHOOL
	2006	2007	2008
Number of Test Takers	104	123	119
Critical Reading	520	508	524
Mathematics	538	528	547
Writing	522	507	527
TOTAL	1580	1543	1598
GREAT MILLS HIGH SCHOOL
	2006	2007	2008
Number of Test Takers	142	151	160
Critical Reading	494	471	476
Mathematics	503	483	476
Writing	474	461	456
TOTAL	1471	1415	1408
LEONARDTOWN HIGH SCHOOL
	2006	2007	2008
Number of Test Takers	208	240	301
Critical Reading	519	525	524
Mathematics	528	533	531
Writing	505	509	517
TOTAL	1552	1567	1572

Scholastic Assessment Test Scores

ST. MARY’S COUNTY SAT SCORES COMPARED TO MARYLAND
AND NATIONAL SCORES
	ST. MARY'S COUNTY	MARYLAND	NATIONAL
Reading
2007	505	500	502
2008	511	499	502
Change	6	-1	0
Mathematics Averages