Local Sat Scores Higher Than Average But Down From ‘96 Decline Concerns Educators, Who’ll Be Watching For A Trend

Spokane’s Class of ‘97 beat the national average on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, but they didn’t do as well as 1996 graduates.

Spokane School District 81 seniors had an average SAT verbal score of 519 and an average math score of 520 - a drop of six points in the verbal section and two points in math.

Educators aren’t overly concerned, but they’ll watch to make sure lower scores don’t become a trend, said Joe Kinney, testing and evaluation coordinator.

“You’re talking just a few points, so whether that’s a significant drop … it might not be,” Kinney said. “If it continues to decline, it’s something to look at.”

Forty percent of the 2,004 Spokane seniors took the optional test last school year, which is largely taken by students interested in college.

Despite a local drop, they out-ranked seniors nationwide by 14 points on verbal scores and nine points in math.

Yet when compared with seniors throughout Washington state, Spokane seniors were four points down in verbal and three in math.

Overall, boys scored higher than girls in both sections. The biggest gap was in math, where boys scored an average of 33 points higher. Their verbal scores topped girls’ by seven points.

Last year, Spokane girls’ scores slightly outranked those of boys in the verbal category. “It flopped back this year, but they are scoring closer,” Kinney said.

Scores also varied from school to school in Spokane.

Lewis and Clark scored highest, with mean scores of 551 on verbal and 533 on math. The lowest scores came from Rogers, where mean scores were 489 on verbal and 499 on math.

Central Valley School District’s graduating seniors set a record high for math scores for the 10,000-student district with a score of 530.

The district’s verbal score landed at 520.

Both scores are up substantially over last year - verbal by 10 points and math by 13, said Geoff Praeger, assessment coordinator.

“I’m attributing it to normal fluctuation,” Praeger said. “We have a very strong math program, there’s no doubt about it. But I think a lot of people don’t realize how big that scale is. On a scale of 600 points, a change of 10 points really isn’t that much.”

SAT scores can range between 200 and 800 points.

Here are the scores for other districts in the area:

At Cheney High School, both math and verbal scores averaged 519.

At Medical Lake High School, the average math score was 558 and the average verbal score 533.

West Valley School District’s scores were 501 for verbal and 507 for math.

Mead and East Valley high schools haven’t yet provided results.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Spokane SAT results

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Jeanette White Staff writer Staff writer Marny Lombard contributed to this report.