Statement from Governor Sonny Perdue Regarding Georgia's SAT Scores

Public School Participation in SAT goes up; GA Minorities Outscore the National Average

ATLANTA – Today Governor Sonny Perdue issued the following statement regarding Georgia’s SAT scores.    

“While we never like to gain ground by allowing our scores to go down, Georgia was again able to close the gap with the national average, continuing a positive trend for the sixth year in a row,” said Governor Sonny Perdue.  “Today we learned from the College Board that while the state of Georgia and the nation as a whole saw a dip in 2007 SAT scores, Georgia continues to have outstanding participation rates and our minority students are scoring higher than the national average for minorities.  Our African-American and Hispanic public school students’ average scores continue to outpace their counterparts around the nation with higher scores in most areas of the test.” 

Georgia African-American students outscored their national counterparts by five points in the critical reading section and by five points in the writing sections of the test.  Hispanic students in Georgia outscored their national counterparts by 23 points in the critical reading section, 16 points in the writing section and 18 points in the math portion of the test. 

“I am proud that we strive to make the SAT accessible to all students in Georgia,” said Governor Perdue.  “We’ve increased the number of students who take the SAT by offering free online SAT prep courses and increased access to rigorous Advanced Placement courses.  By increasing the number of students who take the SAT, we are increasing the number of students who may pursue a post-secondary education, hopefully in Georgia.”

Georgia has one of the highest SAT participation rates in the country.  Public schools in Georgia saw an increase in participation from 65 percent last year to 66 percent this year.  The national participation rate for public schools is 42 percent. 

Participation rates for minority students in Georgia greatly outpace the rates in the nation.  In Georgia public schools, 28.7 percent of SAT takers were African-American while nationwide, only 11.5 percent of test takers were African-American

“Despite the fact that Georgia’s score did not drop at the same rate the national scores dropped, and Georgia held steady its national ranking of 46, we will not be satisfied until Georgia’s SAT scores reflect the quality of education that is being provided to students in our state every day.”