See the 2019 SAT scores for every high school in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and NC
High schools schools across the nation are showing off their bragging rights with the latest round of SAT results.
On Tuesday, the state Department of Public Instruction posted online the SAT scores for the Class for 2019 for every North Carolina school district and public high school. The average score for North Carolina public school students rose 1 point this year to 1,091 — 52 points above the national average for public schools.
“After the previous year’s gain of 16 points, North Carolina students continued to show good achievement,” State Superintendent Mark Johnson said in a press release Tuesday. “These results remain an encouraging sign that more students in the state are graduating from high school well prepared for post-secondary education or other good options to gain skills needed for 21st century jobs.”
The SAT and ACT are the two main college admissions exams taken by high school students. The SAT has slipped in prominence in North Carolina since the state began requiring public high school juniors to take the ACT in 2012.
NC no longer at the bottom
North Carolina is no longer one of the worst states in SAT performance. But the improvement may be due to how fewer students are taking the test now that they take the ACT for free but have to pay for the SAT.
Back in 1996 when the SAT was the dominant exam for North Carolina students, the state’s average SAT score was ranked 48th nationally. But many of the states with higher scores also had lower SAT participation rates because the ACT was the main test there.
As participation has dropped, North Carolina’s average score has risen. The state’s participation rate for the SAT among public school students has dropped from 70% in 2004 to 46% this year.
The SAT’s redesign
The SAT was overhauled in 2016 with changes that lowered the maximum score to 1,600, eliminated obscure vocabulary words, dropped the penalty for guessing and made the essay optional.
The College Board, which owns the SAT, has cautioned against comparing current scores to tests taken before 2016.
The best scores in NC
The N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, a public boarding school in Durham that attracts academically gifted teens from across the state, had the second-highest score in the state at 1,437. Only the much smaller Early College at Guilford was better, with an average score of 1,456.
Raleigh Charter High School had the next highest score in the Triangle, and the third-best statewide, at 1,367.
Triangle-area public high schools accounted for eight of the top 10 SAT scores in the state.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system had the highest average score of any district in the state at 1,287. Among other Triangle districts, the average score was 1,159 in Orange County, 1,155 in Wake County, 1,084 in Johnston County, 1,083 in Chatham County and 1,071 in Durham.
Go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/sat/2019 to view the full SAT report.
Go to http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/sat/ to view previous years.
Triangle SAT scores
Chatham County
Chatham Central High — 1,019
Jordan Matthews High — 1,003
Northwood High — 1,144
Durham County
City Of Medicine Academy — 1,053
JD Clement Early College — 1,121
Durham School Of The Arts — 1,212
Hillside High — 953
Hillside New Tech High — 949
Jordan High — 1,141
Middle College — 1,126
Northern High — 1,014
Riverside High — 1,089
Southern School Of Energy — 938
Johnston County
Clayton High — 1,046
Cleveland High — 1,100
Corinth Holders High — 1,125
Johnston County Early College Academy — 1,202
North Johnston High — 1,048
Princeton High — 1,044
Smithfield-Selma High — 1,032
South Johnston High — 1,063
West Johnston High — 1,096
Orange County
Cedar Ridge High — 1,193
Orange High — 1,131
Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Carrboro High — 1,290
Chapel Hill High — 1,272
East Chapel Hill High — 1,301
Wake County
Apex High — 1,201
Apex Friendship High — 1,158
Athens Drive High — 1,152
Broughton High — 1,149
Cary High — 1,156
Crossroads Flex — 1,104
East Wake High — 1,021
Enloe High — 1,272
Fuquay-Varina High — 1,118
Garner High — 1,051
Green Hope High — 1,262
Heritage High — 1,117
Holly Springs High — 1,159
Knightdale High — 975
Leesville Road High — 1,172
Middle Creek High — 1,161
Millbrook High — 1,131
North Wake College And Career Academy — 1,018
Panther Creek High — 1,270
Rolesville High — 1,038
Sanderson High — 1,141
Southeast Raleigh High — 977
Vernon Malone College And Career Academy — 971
Wake STEM Early College — 1,303
Wake Early College Of Health And Sciences — 1,205
Wake Young Men’s Leadership Academy — 1,091
Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy — 1,071
Wake Forest High — 1,102
Wakefield High — 1,115
Charter Schools
Chatham Charter — 1,121
East Wake Academy — 1,111
Franklin Academy — 1,199
Longleaf School Of The Arts — 1,171
Neuse Charter — 1,078
N.C. Connections Academy — 1,059
Orange Charter — 1,059
Raleigh Charter High — 1,367
Research Triangle High — 1,243
Southern Wake Academy — 1,103
Triangle Math And Science Academy — 1,204
Voyager Academy — 1,137
Woods Charter — 1,280
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 11:18 AM.
