School District Makes Dramatic Gains On SAT Scores In As Little as 10 Hours

Online, August 4, 2011 (Newswire.com) - During the 2009 - 2010 school year Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), Maryland implemented a new test prep program that would require just 10 hours of their students time. The program was used by all 25 of their high schools.

The program utilized real tests for diagnostic purposes and revealed to students their weak skill areas on the tests. Each student worked through lessons and quizzes for each of their weakest skill areas.

The results for the Class of 2010 showed that the MCPS school district SAT average increased 38 points reversing a 4 year downward trend. All groups of students showed strong increases, but African American and Hispanic test-takers posted the strongest gains in MCPS, improving on the previous year's average composite scores by 49 and 54 points respectively. The average MCPS SAT score was 1653 while the average SAT score in MD was 1502. The average SAT score across the country was 1509.

Increased scores lead to increased opportunities for students. Scholarship awards to MCPS students increased nearly $50 million to more than $234 million.

Albert Einstein High School is a MCPS high school and its Principal had this to say about the program, "I'm excited to share with you our great SAT results we have achieved at Albert Einstein High School. Our SAT average has increased by 141 points to a score of 1616. Our higher test scores have lead to more than a 24 percent increase in college scholarships to 6.2 million dollars."

The biggest gains for Einstein High School were with their minority students, significantly narrowing their achievement gap. African American students achieved a 214 point gain for an average score of 1547, Asian students raised their score 122 points to 1607, and Hispanic students raised their score 65 points for an average score of 1389.