Coweta County school officials were quite pleased this week when SAT scores were released. The system’s 1515 average was sixth best in the state for large systems and beat the national average on the college admissions test for the first time.

According to a news release, Coweta County students’ average overall SAT score climbed 11 points from 2007 to 2008, while the national average remained the same at 1511 and the state of Georgia’s average declined by 6 points to 1466 during the same period.

All three Coweta high schools improved their overall scores in 2008, with gains coming particularly in the verbal and writing portions of the exam.

“This is outstanding news for all three high schools,” said Superintendent Blake Bass. “I congratulate our high school juniors and seniors who took the exams last year. I think this demonstrates that our students are well-prepared to enter college and compete on a national level.”

Overall, the scores reported to Coweta County high schools were: East Coweta High-1502, Newnan High-1526 and Northgate High-1520

“This is the first time that all three high schools exceeded the national SAT score on the traditional Verbal and Math averages of the test, and the first year that our school system as a whole exceeded the national average,” said Superintendent Bass,

East Coweta High School showed the highest gains from 2007 to 2008, with improved average scores in all three test areas for an overall SAT score of 1502. That is 21 points over ECHS’s overall average of 1481 in 2007.

Coweta’s scores were 2 percent lower than neighboring Fayette’s 1551 average.

Bass noted that Coweta County has outscored the state average on the SAT since the 1990s, and that meeting the national SAT average has been the goal ever since. High schools have emphasized vocabulary, math and critical thinking skills in their curriculum, and offer strong Advanced Placement selections and SAT preparatory courses in pursuit of that goal.

“Now our task is to keep building on what our students and high schools have accomplished, and maintain and improve our performance,” he said. “But we can take some satisfaction that, increasingly, we aren’t competing against the state or the national average, but against ourselves, and measuring ourselves against higher standards.”