Lancaster County, Pennsylvania schools

The Scholastic Aptitude Test is a college admissions test administered by the College Board. Taking the test requires both planning (registration weeks or months before the test is administered) and payment of a fee.

High scores do not necessarily mean better schools. In blue-collar communities, fewer students will plan for and pay to take the SAT, but those students will tend to be the best students in the school, while in white-collar communities, more average students will take the SAT. In 2003, North Dakota, tied for last place in participation (4%), yet had the highest SAT scores in the nation (602 verbal, 613 math). That same year, 73% of all Pennsylvania students took the SAT, scoring 500 verbal and 502 math.[1]

The SAT has recently been changed to have three sections - reading, math, and writing - instead of two sections - verbal and math. The highest score possible on a section is 800. Students accepted for admission to the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania in 2000 averaged over 700 points on each of the sections (verbal and math) used then.[2] On the other hand, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania offers an honors program to 25-30 incoming freshmen each year, who average 600 on each section of the SAT.[3]

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment refers to standardized tests that grade the school, rather than individual students. Every Pennsylvania student is tested annually in grades 3 through 8, and in grade 11 for both math and reading proficiency; those in grades 5, 8 and 11 are tested for writing proficiency as well.

Target goals are for 80% graduation rate (for high schools) and 90% attendance, 45% mathematics proficiency and 54% reading proficiency, and 95% participation in taking the PSSA tests. Schools are considered to meet the goal with substandard scores if they show improvement over the prior year.

These goals exist for not only the entire school, but for certain subgroups. In theory, a school could have as many as 41 goals to meet, but since schools are exempt from a subgroup goal if the subgroup has fewer than 40 students in that subgroup, no Lancaster County school has anywhere near 41 goals to meet.

^{Scores show (Satisfactory goals/Total Goals)}