Students in Westport’s Staples High School class of 2004 posted the highest SAT scores in a decade, continuing recent trends for excellent performance, the school district has announced.
With scores of 593, math, 581, verbal, the classs combined total of 1174 is an increase of 19 points over last yearҒs scores, which were 584, math, 571 verbal, totaling 1155. The prior years total had been 1139.
The Staples scores continue to be higher than the state and national scores by a wide margin as well, according to a district announcement.
State scores for 2004 were 515, math, 515, verbal; nationals were 519, math, 508, verbal. Both the state and the national scores were higher than they had been in 2003.
Supt. of Schools Elliott Landon said he was pleased by the Staples scores, particularly about the upward trend of the past three years.
However, he said he recognizes that yearly fluctuations in scores within a school are not uncommon, and may reflect differences among particular classes or other factors unrelated to the school program.
Landon said his view is consistent with that of the College Board—the organization that administers the tests—which discourages comparisons from year to year.
The College Board similarly advises against comparing school systems because differences among districts may reflect demographic dissimilarities and/or varying emphases on test preparation, according to the announcement.
