Graduates of Virginia public high schools outperformed their nationwide peers on the SAT in 2019, according to data released today by the College Board, the non-profit organization that administers the college admissions test. Virginia public school seniors achieved an average combined score of 1113, which represented a three-point improvement over the performance of 2018 graduates, and was 74 points higher than the national average for public school seniors. The average score of Virginia public graduates has increased by 18 points since the latest version of the SAT was introduced in 2017.
Of the 54,293 Virginia 2019 public school graduates who took the SAT, 54 percent met or exceeded the College Board’s college-readiness benchmarks in both reading and writing and mathematics.
Nationwide, 45 percent of SAT takers met the readiness standard on both sections of the test.
“We now have a clear trend of higher overall achievement and increased college readiness on the latest version of the SAT,” Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane said. “But when we view the results through an equity lens, we see wide disparities in performance among students. Closing these gaps and making sure that all of our students are college, career, and life ready when they graduate must be the number-one priority every day in every school division and school in the commonwealth.”
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2019 Virginia & National Public School Mean SAT Scores |
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| Group | Overall | Reading & Writing | Mathematics | |||
| Virginia | Nation | Virginia | Nation | Virginia | Nation | |
| All | 1113 | 1039 | 564 | 524 | 548 | 515 |
| Asian | 1249 | 1197 | 612 | 584 | 637 | 613 |
| Black | 967 | 921 | 494 | 470 | 473 | 451 |
| Hispanic | 1064 | 967 | 540 | 489 | 524 | 477 |
| Two or More | 1110 | 1081 | 566 | 547 | 544 | 534 |
| White | 1156 | 1104 | 588 | 557 | 568 | 547 |
2019 Overall 2019 Reading & Writing 2019 Mathematics
| MLWGS | Virginia | Nation | MLWGS | Virginia | Nation | MLWGS | Virginia | Nation |
| 1405 | 1113 | 1039 | 714 | 564 | 524 | 691 | 548 | 515 |
Sixty-four percent of Virginia’s 2019 public school graduates took the SAT, making it by far the most popular college admissions test in the commonwealth.
Forty-nine high schools in 33 school divisions conducted one or more SAT School Day events last fall and spring, allowing students to take the test at their home high school during the regular school day, rather than on a Saturday. More than 4,300 students statewide took part in SAT School Day testing.
“I congratulate the superintendents, principals and other educators in these divisions and schools for their initiative in making it more convenient for their students to take the SAT,” Lane said. “Being able to take the SAT during the school day is especially important for students in rural communities and for students who work on weekends to help support their families.”
The commonwealth’s public school graduates outscored their nationwide peers overall and on both required sections of the college-admissions test, as follows:
- Virginia’s public school average overall score of 1113 was 74 points higher than the average overall score for 2019 public school graduates nationwide.
- Virginia’s public school average of 564 on the reading and writing section was 40 points higher.
- Virginia’s public school average of 548 in mathematics was 33 points higher.
Source: Virginia Department of Education News
