Horry County Schools gain in SAT scores

Horry County Schools students scored better on SAT exams this year, but Georgetown County School District took the cake by earning one of six spots in the S.C. Advanced Placement Honor Roll, according to data released Friday by the S.C. Department of Education.

Horry’s 2015 composite score on the three-part SAT rose to 1,489, an eight-point leap from last year. The district’s composite score surpassed the state average by 47 points and is only one point from the national average of 1,490.

“What you want to see is steady progress over time,” said Teal Harding, spokeswoman for Horry County Schools. “We’re certainly very pleased to see it level back off.”

HCS student’s gained four points on the critical reading section and seven points on the writing section; both scores are above the state average, according to the data.

In math, Horry students averaged 508, which is 21 points above the state average. The district’s math average slipped two points from last year.

Five Horry County schools surpassed the national SAT average: Carolina Forest High School; Myrtle Beach High School; North Myrtle Beach High School; Socastee High School; and the Academy for Arts, Science and Technology.

Horry County Schools increased the number of students taking AP courses by about six percent, and students took 5.5 percent more AP exams this year than 2014, Harding said. The number of students scoring between 3-5 on AP exams, however, slipped seven-tenths of one point to 61.3 percent.

“Generally, when you see the increase in AP participation, you also see some of that ripple into test scores,” Harding said.

Advanced Placement is a program created by the College Board, which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities often grant placement and course credit to students who obtain high scores on the examinations.

Georgetown County School District dipped four points on the composite SAT scores for 2015, but gained five points on the writing section, according to the data.

“Again we had a very similar number of students taking this step toward their resume for college with a nearly similar overall score” Patti Hammel, executive director of student performance and federal programs for GCSD, said in a statement.

More Georgetown County students took AP exams this year than the last, and more than half at Georgetown and Waccamaw High schools scored at a passing rate.

More than 300 Georgetown County students took a composite total of 388 AP exams, allowing GCSD to be one of only six counties in S.C. to be named to the Advanced Placement Honor Roll, Hammel said. Schools that increase the number of AP tests taken and the percentages of students scoring 3 or better on the exams are named to the list.

“We continue to make pathways for college credit available to our students with outstanding results,” Hammel said.

For complete results on SAT and AP performance for both districts, visit https://ed.sc.gov/.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Horry County Schools gain in SAT scores."