Two Coweta County high schools have been recognized by the Governor’s office for student achievements on the SAT.

Northgate High School and East Coweta High School were two of only 35 schools state wide to be awarded the annual Governor's Cup Challenge honor. Each of the 35 high schools has shown significant three-year average gains in the Reading and Math SAT scores.

“I am very proud of their dedication to SAT improvement!” said Governor Perdue. “Each of these high schools should also be applauded for a job well done! Because of the efforts of students, teachers, and administrators from schools all across our great state, Georgia students have demonstrated great gains in all areas of SAT performance between 2004 and 2006. Georgia can be proud of the gains made on the 2006 SAT. It is important to note that these gains were made with 65 percent of Georgia’s public school seniors taking the SAT.”

East Coweta High School was honored as the 2006 SAT region’s trophy winner for Class-AAAAA and Region 4-AAAAA, for its average SAT score gain of 13 points on the verbal and math sections of the test in the last two years, combined, for a total score of 1003 last year. East Coweta High’s average student score last year on verbal portion of the test was above the national average.

Northgate High School was honored as the 2006 SAT region’s trophy winner for Class-AAAA and Region 4-AAAA, for its average SAT score gain of 6.5 points on the verbal and math sections of the test in the last two years, combined, for a total score of 1039 last year. Northgate students outscored the national average on both sections, and overall.

Perdue said that he believes “that the keys to educational success are found on the "front lines" of education. The Governor's Cup competition embodies this belief in three ways. First, it focuses attention on a critical area-boosting SAT scores. Second, it highlights the best performers so that we may all learn from them. Third, the competition presents an opportunity to celebrate success. I am committed to a culture that uses the positive reinforcement of recognition as a vehicle to encourage students, parents, and educators to set higher goals. If students select, parents support, and teachers deliver rigorous coursework, higher academic achievement…”

Both cups also are accompanied by a $1,000 prize to be spent on instructional materials as the schools see fit.

“We are very excited about this honor,” said Northgate’s Reddekopp, adding, however, that the schools still feels their performance isn’t “good enough… Our goal is to achieve a 1700” on the combined score, including the writing sections of the test.

Reddekopp attributes Northgate’s performance – and high student performance on the SAT generally – to rigorous courses of study, including high rates of participation at all three county high schools in Advanced Placement classes.

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