By Marilyn Kinsey
Sunday, August 31, 2008 — Gray Stone Day School students did very well on the SAT in 2008. With a score of 1,643, the school was more than 100 points higher than the national average of 1,511 and well over the North Carolina average of 1,489. Compared with other area public high schools, Gray Stone had the highest score in the region and ranked 14th statewide.
More than 97 percent of the students at the school took the SAT, which is well above the national average of 45 percent or the state average of 63 percent.
“We are very excited about how well the students performed,” said Helen Nance, chief administrative officer for the school.
“These scores make us one of the top performing public high schools in the state.
“Most of the other schools that scored higher are in urban areas, which tells me we are meeting our goal. We are preparing students to compete in college with students from urban areas.”
Gray Stone’s high state ranking puts Gray Stone in an elite group of schools. Several of these, including the NC School of Science and Math and the NC School of the Arts, have a selection process for admission. Many other top performing schools test a much lower percentage of students, resulting in higher average scores.
“With almost all students at the school taking the SAT and our still performing at such a high level is commendable,” Nance said.
