GLENDALE : Area SAT Scores Top State, U.S. Averages

Students at Glendale’s three high schools scored lower on the Scholastic Aptitude Test in 1994 than they did last year, but still managed to beat the average score for students in California and nationwide.

Hoover High students increased their average score this year in the verbal portion of the SAT, the annual test given to college-bound high school students. But overall, students from the three campuses scored lower on the mathematics and verbal sections of the test than students tested in 1993.

Crescenta Valley High students had an average combined score for the math and verbal portions of 957, the highest of the three schools. Hoover students had an average score of 949, and Glendale High students had an average score of 906. The statewide average score is 895, and the national average score is 902.

District officials said they were pleased with the results and said the SAT is only “one of numerous indicators” that reflect the quality of the district’s programs. They said that although scores have dipped recently, the long-term trend shows that Glendale’s students are improving their SAT scores.

“Over a short term of one to three years, it is not unusual for individual school results to fluctuate by numerous points up or down,” district spokesman Vic Pallos said.

He said that in the last decade, however, the average scores on the math portion of the SAT by Glendale students have risen 41 points at Hoover, 28 points at Crescenta Valley and 17 points at Glendale, while state and national averages have been “fairly constant.”

In the verbal portion, the state average has dropped nine points and the national average three points, but Hoover has increased its average score 13 points, Pallos said. The average verbal scores at Crescenta Valley and Glendale have dropped four points, he said.