Largest, Most Diverse Number of ACPS Students Take SAT in 2012

SAT Scores Continue to Improve

Alexandria, VA — Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) Superintendent Morton Sherman today commended T.C. Williams Principal Suzanne Maxey on having the largest number of students in nearly a decade take the SAT in 2012 producing an increase in scores over 2011. The College Board today released the 2012 preliminary SAT scores for school divisions across the nation.

"We are very pleased to have had 65 percent of our senior class take the SAT this year," said Dr. Sherman. "I believe that our growth as a division is one of our measures of success, and a growing number of participants in this process and improved scores over 2011 are significant."

The diversity of ACPS SAT test takers is a point of pride for the division as well. A total of 665 seniors were enrolled in ACPS in June of 2012. Sixty-five percent or 435 of these seniors took the SAT. Seventy-two percent of the test takers were minorities compared with Virginia's 41 percent and the nation's 47 percent.

More ACPS students taking the SAT were from families with incomes below $30,000 (35 percent) than was the case for Virginia (16 percent) and the nation (23 percent). The percentage of students from families with incomes greater than $100,000 was 30 percent which was lower than Virginia (39 percent) and slightly lower than the nation (31 percent). Seventeen percent of ACPS test takers have a first language other than English which was higher than Virginia's six percent or the nation's 12 percent.

"2012 was a great year of participation for ACPS in both the SAT and AP exams," Dr. Sherman said. "More students continue to participate in these high-stakes tests and scores continue to improve. We move closer to our goal of providing an excellent education for each and every student, with each student prepared to engage in SAT and AP exams."

In 2012, SAT scores in ACPS improved by several points in all categories over 2011 scores. While ACPS remained below the state and national averages across all three SAT subtests in 2012, compared with 2011 SAT scores seen within ACPS, Reading (+8), Math (+4), and Writing (+5) all increased.

The College Board will release the final SAT results in November. The preliminary results released today are a preview to the final report.