Hillgrove Has Cobb's Biggest SAT Jump
But the average for all the county's public high schools shows a two-point drop from last year.
Seven of the 16 high schools in the Cobb County School District posted SAT scores from the class of 2012 above the national average. But the system-wide cumulative average is down slightly from last year, according to data released Monday.
Recent graduates averaged an SAT score of 1520 in the combined reading, math and writing totals, a drop from the 1522 score the year before, the CCSD said in a release (see attached PDF).
But that 1520 score remains 68 points ahead of the Georgia average and 22 points ahead of the national average.
A total of 5,790 CCSD seniors took the SAT this year, representing around 80 percent of their class.
On the rise were SAT scores for African-American students (14 points to a 1336 score), Native-American students (49 points to 1528) and for Asian-American students (31 points to 1707).
The SAT scores for Hispanic students dropped 26 points to 1403, while average for white students fell one point to 1618.
“These scores tell me that our students are well-prepared to compete at the college level,” Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa said in the release. “We know that the district’s SAT average isn’t going to increase every year, but we did see marked improvement in several of our student groups as we continue to focus on closing the achievement gap."
The schools with the best SAT averages are in East Cobb: Walton (1743), Pope (1645), Lassiter (1636) and Wheeler (1611).
The other Cobb high schools above the national average score of 1498 are Kennesaw Mountain (1572), Harrison (1561) and Kell (1507). Also in that group is one of the newest high schools in the district, Hillgrove, which experienced the biggest jump of any school—57 points—to 1528.
Reading scores across CCSD were up by two points, while writing and math scores dipped by three points and one point, respectively.
The following are school-by-school scores, along with systemwide, state and national averages. For more data, see the attached CCSD press release.
The detailed chart contains score comparisons by school against scores from 2010 and 2011.
| Area/School | 2012 Pct. Tested | 2012 Reading | 2012 Math | 2012 Writing | 2012 Total |
| National | 48 | 496 | 514 | 488 | 1498 |
| Georgia | 80 | 488 | 489 | 475 | 1452 |
| Cobb | 81 | 512 | 514 | 494 | 1520 |
| Allatoona | 81 | 509 | 503 | 483 | 1495 |
| Campbell | 72 | 487 | 489 | 482 | 1458 |
| Harrison | 92 | 524 | 531 | 506 | 1561 |
| Hillgrove | 82 | 516 | 513 | 499 | 1528 |
| Kell | 85 | 503 | 515 | 489 | 1507 |
| Kennesaw Mountain | 83 | 531 | 533 | 508 | 1572 |
| Lassiter | 98 | 549 | 556 | 531 | 1636 |
| McEachern | 80 | 457 | 440 | 429 | 1326 |
| North Cobb | 78 | 487 | 475 | 464 | 1426 |
| Osborne | 51 | 414 | 418 | 398 | 1230 |
| Pebblebrook | 78 | 436 | 414 | 428 | 1278 |
| Pope | 92 | 545 | 562 | 538 | 1645 |
| South Cobb | 66 | 450 | 441 | 432 | 1323 |
| Sprayberry | 80 | 511 | 501 | 483 | 1495 |
| Walton | 100 | 580 | 597 | 566 | 1743 |
| Wheeler | 80 | 535 | 555 | 521 | 1611 |
Don’t miss any of the local news you care about. Subscribe to West Cobb Patch’s free newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.