Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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Ann Graham, director of testing and accountability, said, “We took a huge leap last year, and even though scores are lower this year, we are still higher than every year before last year.”
Davie’s total score, which includes math, critical reading and writing, is 1,523, well above the score for the state of 1,486. The national score is 1,511. The score last year for Davie was 1,545.
A total of 163 Davie students took the test, down from 173 the previous year.
The math score this year was 529, down from 536 last year; critical reading was 501, down from 505, and writing was 493, down from 504.
Graham cautions against a knee-jerk reaction when test scores go down.
“If you look at the trend over the past 11 years, the scores have been up, down, up, down, up down, continuously, the whole time. It just depends on the class taking the test, the cohort of students taking the test ever year. You can do everything you can to prepare them, but you can’t predict how that class will do until you see their results.
“And since the group of 2007 graduates taking the SAT from Davie County is much smaller than the group reported for the state and the nation, you can expect Davie’s scores to fluctuate more than the scores for the state and nation. This is something I can never get people to understand.”
Superintendent Dr. Robert Landry agreed with Graham, saying, “We did drop. Fluctuations always occur, and one of the reasons can be the number of students taking the test, because the mean changes depending on that specific number. However, we did drop, and there are no excuses, and now we must address the issue.”
Davie High Principal Cary Powers said several classes are ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.