Alabama continues trend of high SAT scores

The College Board released its national and state results on the SAT for the graduating class of 2007 this morning. Alabama continued its trend of higher scores than the national average, posting an average total of 1119 to the national average of 1017 on a 1600-point scale.

There are a few reasons Alabama shows such high numbers on the SAT as opposed to the ACT, where the state lags the nation. First, more than 34,000 students took the ACT compared to about 3,700 for the SAT. Also, those who take the SAT belong to the subgroups known to have academic advantages across the board.

Alabama's SAT takers come disproportionately from families with an income of more than $100,000 and whose parents have a graduate degree. More students also have A averages and are in the top tenth of their graduating class.

Fore a breakdown of the numbers, see tomorrow's Star.