For the past couple of years, graduating seniors in Montgomery County as a whole have scored nearly identical -- in both 2007 and 2008 they posted combined scores of 1080 -- on the SAT, the college-entrance exam designed to show a student's ability to succeed at college. Yet from high school to high school, the scores are much different.

The College Board, the company that administers the exam, released score data from Virginia's 2008 graduating class Tuesday. The numbers show that while about 2 percent fewer Virginia students are taking the test compared to the class of 2007, those who do still score above the mean national scores in some areas. In the verbal test (now called "critical reading"), Virginia students scored 511, nine points higher than the national mean. In math, the state's students scored 512, three points lower, according to the College Board. In writing, a portion of the test added three years ago, Virginia scored 496 compared with the national mean of 494.

The 395 Montgomery County seniors who took the exam scored a mean 542 in verbal, 538 in math and 523 in writing.

Montgomery County Superintendent Tiffany Anderson pointed to programs such as offering the preliminary PSAT to students as reasons for the good scores.

However, the figures are disproportionate throughout the county. While Blacksburg High School carried the county with an average score of 1144, Auburn High School saw the largest jump in scores.

Blacksburg's 211 students who tested scored 570 in verbal and 574 in math. The figures were a dip from the previous year by as much as 15 points.

Auburn's 34 students who tested jumped 75 points in overall score and 37 points in writing from 2007. Students in 2008 scored 532 verbal, 514 math for a total of 1046. They combined for 503 in writing.

Auburn doesn't have a formal SAT prep program, but it has used a combined reading and math specialist -- a teacher who gets paid a stipend to focus on the subjects -- to work with students.

"We pretty much got it together over here," Principal Carl Pauli said. "I'm not surprised that we would be doing well."

Specialist Jeff Sauter said he has done nothing different, other than have "nice kids who want to do well."

At Eastern Montgomery High School, which had 22 students -- 13 fewer than 2007 -- take the exam, also saw a drop in its overall score, while Christiansburg's scores remained steady from year to year.

All districts in the New River Valley should have received reports from the College Board, but Montgomery County was the only district to provide information to The Roanoke Times. Radford Superintendent Chuck Bishop said the high school had not received its scores.

Anna L. Mallory covers events and issues affecting Montgomery County schools and beyond. If you have information you'd like featured, e-mail anna.mallory@roanoke.com. You also can visit Chalk Dust, the New River Valley's education news source, at blogs.roanoke.com/chalkdust.

SOURCE: Montgomery County Board of Education