School begins next week and already there's excitement at T.C. Williams High School. Not because the doors open for a new year Tuesday, but because of the SAT scores just released this week.
The 2003 T. C. Williams SAT scores show gains in both verbal and math. Verbal scores improved by eight points from a verbal score of 485 in 2002 to 493 in 2003, and a mean math score of 491in 2002 to 495 in 2003.
“We are very pleased that our SAT and SOL scores are steadily improving,” said John Porter, the principal at T. C. Williams High School. “We are going to do everything we can to see that this trend continues.”
Over the past five years, T. C. verbal SAT scores have increased by 12 points while Virginia verbal scores have increased by six points and national verbal scores have increased by two points. During the same period, T.C.'s math scores have improved by 15 points while state scores have improved by eight points and national scores by 11 points. The composite SAT score for students from T. C. Williams was 988.
SIXTY SEVEN PERCENT of the T.C. student’s who took the SAT test in 2003, were minority students. More Alexandria City Public School students taking the SAT were from families with incomes below $30,000 (36 percent) then the case for Virginia (18 percent) and the nation (23 percent).
The percent of ACPS test-takers with a first language other than English, was 23 percent which was far higher than Virginia’s 5 percent or the nation’s 9 percent. Only 64 percent of ACPS students reported English only as their first language, as compared to 87 percent for Virginia and 80 percent for the nation.
A higher percent of ACPS test-takers (8 percent) had parents with no high school diploma than did Virginia (3 percent) or the nation (5 percent).