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Press Release

For Immediate Release

Thursday, August 27, 2009

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

SMCPS SAT Results INCREASE 27 points

Leonardtown, MD – St. Mary’s County Public Schools’ (SMCPS) students exceeded national and state averages on the Scholastic Achievement Tests (SAT) with an average combined score of 1559 out of 2400.

“We are extremely proud of our students’ performance on this year’s SAT,” said Dr. Michael J. Martirano, superintendent of schools. “The county average of 1559 surpasses our 2006 county average of 1534 which was an all-time high for the school system. Our student, parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators are to be commended for their hard work that contributed to higher levels of student performance on the SAT this year.”

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 44.9 percent of the school system’s seniors were administered the SAT assessment this year. This marks the fourth consecutive year that SMCPS had over 450 seniors participate in this assessment.

Great Mills High School administered the SAT assessment to 52.6 percent of its senior class. Great Mills seniors scored a 473 average on the mathematics portion. This combined with a 469 average critical reading and a 460 average writing score gave Great Mills a 1402 composite average.

Leonardtown High School seniors posted scores above the state and national averages. Over 52.2 percent of the senior class took the SAT. Leonardtown posted a critical reading average score of 547, a writing average score of 530, and a mathematics average score of 554, which gave Leonardtown a 1631 composite average.

Chopticon High School seniors also posted scores above the state and national averages. Their average critical reading score of 528, average mathematics score of 554, and average writing score of 523 led to a 1605 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, 2006-2009
ST. MARY’S COUNTY
	2006	2007	2008	2009
Number of Test Takers	454	514	580	485
Critical Reading	512	505	511	520
Mathematics	522	517	519	530
Writing	500	494	502	509
TOTAL	1534	1516	1532	1559

CHOPTICON HIGH SCHOOL
	2006	2007	2008	2009
Number of Test Takers	104	123	119	99
Critical Reading	520	508	524	528
Mathematics	538	528	547	554
Writing	522	507	527	523
TOTAL	1580	1543	1598	1605

GREAT MILLS HIGH SCHOOL
	2006	2007	2008	2009
Number of Test Takers	142	151	160	141
Critical Reading	494	471	476	469
Mathematics	503	483	476	473
Writing	474	461	456	460
TOTAL	1471	1415	1408	1402

LEONARDTOWN HIGH SCHOOL
	2006	2007	2008	2009
Number of Test Takers	208	240	301	245
Critical Reading	519	525	524	547
Mathematics	528	533	531	554
Writing	505	509	517	530
TOTAL	1552	1567	1572	1631

ST. MARY’S COUNTY SAT SCORES COMPARED TO MARYLAND
AND NATIONAL SCORES
	ST. MARY'S COUNTY	MARYLAND	NATIONAL
Reading
2008	511	499	502
2009	520	500	501
Change	9	1	-1
Mathematics Averages
2008	519	502	515
2009	530	502	515
Change	11	0	0
Writing
2008	502	497	494
2009	509	495	493
Change	7	-2	-1

SMCPS Male Test Takers

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009
N	187	232	269	209
Reading	509	508	517	524
Mathematics	537	538	539	548
Writing	481	485	499	495
Total	1527	1531	1555	1567

SMCPS Female Test Takers

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009
N	267	281	311	276
Reading	514	503	505	518
Mathematics	512	500	501	517
Writing	512	502	505	519
Total	1538	1505	1511	1554

SMCPS White Test Takers

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009
N	379	376	408	350
Reading	523	517	527	532
Mathematics	529	528	538	544
Writing	510	508	519	520
Total	1562	1553	1584	1596

SMCPS African American Test Takers

Year	2006	2007	2008	2009
N	55	59	78	64
Reading	409	448	418	454
Mathematics	418	456	421	450
Writing	417	428	413	441
Total	1244	1332	1252	1345

Percentage of Seniors Taking the SAT

Year	GMHS			LHS			CHS			SMCPS
	#SAT	Grads	Percent	#SAT	Grads	Percent	#SAT	Grads	Percent	#SAT	Grads	Percent
2002	139	294	47.3%	178	298	59.7%	96	258	37.2%	413	850	48.6%
2003	162	301	53.8%	155	331	46.8%	123	279	44.1%	440	911	48.3%
2004	124	278	44.6%	182	295	61.7%	104	310	33.5%	410	883	46.4%
2005	133	292	45.5%	196	318	61.6%	119	311	38.3%	448	921	48.6%
2006	142	302	47.0%	208	373	55.8%	104	344	30.2%	454	1019	44.6%
2007	151	276	54.7%	240	397	60.5%	123	363	33.9%	514	1036	49.6%
2008	160	315	50.8%	301	467	64.5%	119	374	31.8%	580	1156	50.2%
2009	141	268	52.6%	245	470	52.2%	99	341	29.0%	485	1079	44.9%

GMHS SAT SCORES COMPARED TO MARYLAND
AND NATIONAL SCORES
	Great Mills HS	SMCPS	MARYLAND	NATIONAL
Reading
2008	476	511	499	502
2009	469	520	500	501
Change	-7	9	1	-1
Mathematics Averages
2008	476	519	502	515
2009	473	530	502	515
Change	-3	11	0	0
Writing
2008	456	502	497	494
2009	460	509	495	493
Change	4	7	-2	-1

CHS SAT SCORES COMPARED TO MARYLAND
AND NATIONAL SCORES
	Choption HS	SMCPS	MARYLAND	NATIONAL
Reading
2008	524	511	499	502
2009	528	520	500	501
Change	4	9	1	-1
Mathematics Averages
2008	547	519	502	515
2009	554	530	502	515
Change	7	11	0	0
Writing
2008	527	502	497	494
2009	523	509	495	493
Change	-4	7	-2	-1

LHS SAT SCORES COMPARED TO MARYLAND
AND NATIONAL SCORES
	Leonardtown HS	SMCPS	MARYLAND	NATIONAL
Reading
2008	524	511	499	502
2009	547	520	500	501
Change	23	9	1	-1
Mathematics Averages
2008	531	519	502	515
2009	554	530	502	515
Change	23	11	0	0
Writing
2008	517	502	497	494
2009	530	509	495	493
Change	13	7	-2	-1