Fewer South Fulton County Students Take the SAT & Their Scores Lag Behind the State Average

Last week, the Georgia Department of Education released district-level and school-level SAT scores for 2014.

According to the report, the state average SAT score for critical reading, math, and writing was 488, 485, and 472 respectively.

Fulton County exceeded the state average with critical reading, math, and writing scores of 520, 530, and 517. 4,829 Fulton County high school students took the SAT in 2014, with highest number of test takers coming from Milton and Roswell high schools. Banneker High School, in College Park, produced the fewest SAT test takers in the county with 83.

Banneker also had the lowest average SAT score in Fulton County. Banneker students scored 398 on critical reading, 396 on math, and 384 on writing. That is over 100 points below the Fulton County average.

Fulton County Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa lauded his county's SAT scores, saying, "Our district's overall score stayed constant this year, but most of our high schools saw increases.

"Only two other districts have higher SAT scores than Fulton and both have almost 3,000 to 4,800 fewer students taking the test," Avossa said. "For a district of our diversity and size, our scores are consistently high which shows how hard our schools are working to prepare students."

The achievement gap between north Fulton County and south Fulton County high schools remains, however.

As the table below shows, fewer students are taking the SAT in the five high schools located in predominately black south Fulton County (Banneker, Creekside, Langston Hughes, Tri-Cities, and Westlake) than in north Fulton. And the SAT scores in south Fulton are lower than the north Fulton average.

Another way to look at it is this:

The best school in south Fulton County, Westlake High School, is still about fifty points below the average of the worst school in north Fulton County -- North Springs High School.

School	Number of Test Takers	Average Critical Reading Score	Average Math Score	Average Writing Score
Alpharetta	447	562	580	562
Banneker	83	398	396	384
Cambridge	197	530	539	518
Centennial	328	527	529	521
Chattahoochee	423	550	578	552
Creekside	170	429	416	420
Johns Creek	418	553	580	558
Langston Hughes	270	414	407	404
Milton	505	552	562	540
North Springs	271	517	499	503
Northview	468	575	622	582
Riverwood	335	518	512	510
Roswell	505	546	556	551
Tri-Cities	94	438	427	432
Westlake	315	437	431	427

[SOURCE: Georgia Department of Education]