Seniors in Polk County High School’s class of 2016 recorded a 39-point year-over-year improvement on the SAT college admissions exam, according to data released by The College Board and the North Carolina Department of Instruction.

Polk County High seniors recorded an average composite score of 1552, well above the state average (1485) and national average (1484). The figure also exceeded the score of 1513 recorded by students in the class of 2015.

Because a new version of the SAT was administered beginning in March, The College Board excluded from its analysis of 2016 graduates the scores of 1,805 students who took the exam for the first time after January 2016.

Year-to-year comparisons are between graduating students who took the test no later than January and those in the class of 2015 who also took the test no later than January 2015. In other words, only scores on the old SAT are included in the results. The new SAT data cannot be compared to that of previous years because the redesigned SAT is a different assessment from the old SAT.

“I’m very proud of the SAT results for PCHS,” said Polk County High School principal Mary Feagan.

“I believe our students have performed well on both the SAT and the ACT because of the rigorous classroom instruction they receive in all courses, and because they understand good scores have a real impact on their futures. And, too, we have established a tradition of doing well that our students want to see continue.”

Polk County High students scored an average of 532 on the reading portion of the test, 529 on the math section and 491 on the writing portion.

Among public school students in North Carolina, the state’s total average scores were also up by 1 point on each of the two portions of the exam (to 496 in critical reading; 504 in math). By comparison, the national average score in critical reading was 487 and in math, 494. Average scores on the writing portion of the test declined by 5 points both for North Carolina (468) and the nation as a whole (472).

In all, 56,468 North Carolina students who graduated from all schools in 2016 took the SAT, compared to 56,947 in 2015.

– article submitted by PolkStudents.com