News

County SAT scores rank 9th among 115 school districts

By Bill Moss, Published: September 29, 2012

The Henderson County schools recorded the ninth highest SAT score among 115 school districts in the  North Carolina and third highest in the western region, the county school system said.

According to the College Board's annual SAT report, 55.6 percent (460 students) of the county's public high school high school seniors took the SAT in 2012, an increase from the 51.8 percent who took the test in 2011.

The average combined Critical Reading and Mathematics score was 1042 and the Grand Total score was 1530 (the combined Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing scores). HCPS' average combined Critical Reading and Mathematics score is 61 points higher than the state's and 32 points than the nation's.
Sixty-eight percent (63,271 students) of North Carolina high school seniors in 2012 took the SAT college admissions exam and had an average combined score of 997 (Critical Reading and Math), and a Grand Total score (combined Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing scores) of 1469. The nation had 52.0 percent (1,664,479 students) of high school seniors taking the test, scoring a Critical Reading and Math average combine score of 1010 and a Grand Total score of 1498.
The participation rate for the class of 2012 is the largest in North Carolina history. North Carolina students and colleges and universities historically have favored the SAT admissions test although the state began administering the ACT college admissions test to all high school juniors in 2012.
The SAT has set a Benchmark of 1550 (combination of Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing) as the score indicating a 65 percent likelihood that students will achieve a B grade point average or higher during their first year of college. Using this Benchmark, 38 percent of North Carolina's Class of 2012 achieved the Benchmark of 1550. This is the first year that The College Board has set and reported scores against a Benchmark.
The other major college admission test is the American College Testing (ACT), a curriculum-based achievement test consisting of four separate exams in English, Reading, Mathematics, and Science, as well as an optional writing test. The ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 being the highest possible score. The ACT average composite for the Henderson County Public Schools' 2012 graduates was 22.5. Nationally 52 percent of students took the ACT and posted an average score of 21.1. Twenty percent of North Carolina's Class of 2012 took the ACT, maintaining a 21.9 average score. This is the fifth consecutive year that the state's average score was higher than the national average on this college admission exam.