Virginia students outscore students nationwide on SAT, Virginia DOE reports

Virginia public school graduates in 2016 continued to buck a multiyear, nationwide trend of sharply lower achievement on the SAT college-admissions test.

The College Board, which publishes the SAT, reported today that the average scores for public school graduates in Virginia rose by one point in reading, held steady in mathematics, and fell one point in writing. Nationwide, achievement declined in all three subjects on the SAT.

Some 65 percent of Virginia’s 2016 public school graduates took the SAT, which is the predominant admissions test in Virginia, and therefore a key indicator of schools’ effectiveness in preparing students for the first year of college, according to a news release from the Virginia Department of Education.

“With the redesign of the SAT this year, the performance of Virginia’s 2016 graduating seniors caps a decade-long trend of increased achievement,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven R. Staples was quoted as saying in the news release.

The commonwealth’s public school graduates outscored their nationwide peers on all three subsections of the college-admissions test:

Virginia’s public school mean score in reading of 516 was 29 points higher.

Virginia’s public school mean score in mathematics of 513 was 19 points higher.

Virginia’s public school mean score in writing of 493 was 21 points higher.