While national and state mean scores for college-bound seniors dipped in 2009, Lake Washington School District (LWSD) seniors scored higher on all three tests: critical reading, writing and mathematics. District students continue to score well above state and national averages. The number of district students taking the test did fall this year, from 1174 in 2008 to 1123 in 2009.

The largest increase came in writing scores. LWSD college-bound seniors averaged 551 in writing, up six points from 545 in 2008. The mean for all college-bound seniors who took the test is 493, down one point from 2008, and Washington state students scored 507 on average, down two points. Lake Washington students have improved their mean score every year in the four years since the writing test began.

Mean math scores increased by four points for LWSD college-bound seniors, from 570 in 2008 to 574 in 2009. That increase follows a seven point rise in 2008. State scores averaged 531, down from 533, and scores for all students who took the SAT averaged 515, the same as in 2008.

Scores for Lake Washington seniors also rose four points on average in critical reading. They averaged 559 in 2009, up from 555 in 2008. That score compares to 524 for all students statewide and 501 for all students who took the SAT. Washington scores fell by one and national scores by two from 2008.

“Our students keep raising the bar for achievement,” noted Superintendent Chip Kimball. “While the numbers have been pretty consistently down or flat on all the tests statewide or nationally, our students just keep getting better. I believe that’s because our teachers keep getting better, too.”