Strong showing on SATs

Massachusetts is one of the highest-scoring states nationwide, and area schools dominate the upper echelon in the Bay State, taking eight of the top 10 spots on a list reflecting combined scores by this spring’s graduating class, and 17 of the top 25. The results were released recently by the nonprofit College Board, which administers the SATs.

Lexington High School had the highest average combined SAT score in the area at 1,882, placing it second statewide. Coming in third statewide was Newton South High with an average score of 1,872. The class of 2009 at Acton-Boxborough Regional finished fourth in the state, averaging 1,865.

A perfect score would be 2,400, achieved by getting an 800 on each of the three sections: critical reading, math, and writing.

At the top of the state’s list was the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, a school affiliated with Worcester Polytechnic Institute that requires an application, recommendations, and entrance exam.

Paul Ash, superintendent of Lexington’s schools, was quick to point out that distinction, noting that his school was tops in the state among public schools without an entrance exam. (Lexington, Newton South, and Acton-Boxborough all beat out Boston Latin, a well-respected exam school that ranked fifth statewide.)

Many schools are focused these days on “closing the achievement gap,’’ said Ash, but Lexington’s strength lies in its ability to serve all students, those at the top, bottom, and middle.

“Of course we want to increase academic performance for those who are struggling, but we also have to do our best to educate all kids,’’ he said. “When you do that well, one of the outcomes is raising averages on state and national exams.’’

The SAT test is not part of the Lexington curriculum, said Ash. He acknowledged many students take prep courses with one of the many professional services.

Newton South always does well on the SATs but the class that just graduated was the school’s largest ever, according to Barbara Brown, its director of counseling.

“It happened to be a very competitive class,’’ she added. “We have very smart children who work very hard, and very dedicated faculty.’’

Some students use the professional test prep services, said Brown, but some who do well don’t. Last year, Newton South hired a test-preparation company to help Metco students for a nominal fee, she said. Metco is a voluntary desegregation program that sends students from Boston and Springfield to suburban school districts.

“I think it’s not the end all and be all,’’ Brown said of the SATs. “Some kids can’t test. There have to be other ways of looking at children.’’

Some education specialists are critical of using the SAT results to rate the education provided by high schools.

“It is as useful to rank schools by zip code as by SATs,’’ said Hardin Coleman, dean of Boston University’s School of Education.

Grade-point average is more predictive of how a student will perform in college than an SAT score, he said.

An analysis of figures released by the College Board indicated that the average SAT score in each of the three sections goes up in lockstep with family income. For this year, the average SAT score in Massachusetts (public and private schools combined) for a student with a family income of $20,000 or less was 454 on the math portion. For a student whose family income was more than $200,000, the average math score jumped to 595. The same pattern played out across the income spectrum. The average math score for a student in the $60,000 to $80,000 bracket was 512; in the $80,000 to $100,000 bracket, it was 528.

The College Board website discourages ranking schools or states by SAT scores, calling such lists “invalid.’’ The SAT “should never be used alone for such comparisons because demographics and other nonschool factors can have a strong effect on scores,’’ according to the website, www.collegeboard.com.

Nevertheless, SAT scores consistently show up in all manner of rankings as one way to compare students and schools.

Locally, the highest-scoring schools overall also posted the highest average scores on the three individual sections.

Lexington had the highest critical-reading average among area communities, at 620. Acton-Boxborough had the highest math average in the region, at 643. And the Bromfield School, Harvard’s public high school, got the highest writing score in the area, at 627. In all three cases the component scores were second statewide to those of the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, which swept all three categories.

Nationally, Massachusetts ranked first in math, second behind New Hampshire in reading, and second behind Connecticut in writing among states where at least 60 percent of the students took the test, according to the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Overall, the state’s average results increased by 1 point in reading and 2 points in math, but fell 1 point in writing compared with a year ago.

According to the state education agency, 72 percent of public high school students in this year’s graduating class took the test, the third-highest participation rate in the country behind Maine and New York.

Matt Carroll of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Lisa Kocian can be reached at lkocian@globe.com.