Despite a one-point drop in its average Scholastic Aptitude Test score in 2008, Central High School won a regional Governor’s Cup award for a second year in a row, based mainly on the 57-point jump from 1415 in 2006 to 1472 in 2007.

Governor’s Cup winners are chosen for their average gain over the last three years on the SAT, which many colleges use as one gauge of how well a student is prepared for college. Central’s average three-year gain was 28 points.

Mallie McCord, deputy press secretary for the governor’s office, said she didn’t know of any other winning schools that had falling scores when they won, but it was a possibility since the schools are judged on a three-year average gain rather than a one-year gain.

The Governor’s Cup award was instituted in 2003 using three years of scores, because it was a more consistent way to measure the improvement in the schools, she said.

“Taking it over a one-year period you can’t see how students would have improved,” McCord said. “Over three years, you can see what they did over the first two years.”

For instance, Central may have gone down one point, but the students held their ground, not returning to the lower average of the year before as they might have if the scores had been affected by a one-time aid.

Comparing three years of scores also helps even out changes in the test, such as the addition of the writing portion of the test that was added into the scores and included in the judging for the first time this year, she said.

Most colleges require that students take either the SAT or the ACT, and the scores are used as part of the admittance process. The SAT tests math, English and writing skills. Each section is worth 800 points for a total possible score of 2400. Central’s average score this year was 1,471.

The governor instituted the awards in an effort to raise SAT scores throughout the state, McCord said.

“In any competition - athletic or academic - how you prepare is how you’ll play,” said Gov. Sonny Perdue in a prepared statement.

Central will receive as part of the recognition a $1,000 grant to be used to fund future preparation for the test.

“Last time we bought books for the SAT prep class,” said Claudia Waldrop, guidance counselor at Central. “We’ll reinvest it into the SAT prep class, I’m sure. It’s worked well for us.”

Last year, the school started offering a half-hour preparation class for the test during the day, she said.

“We put in an extra period in the day and we have everybody in our school either in remediation or enrichment,” Waldrop said. “One of the enrichment classes is a SAT prep class and it’s worked out very well.”

The school also takes advantage of the free online SAT preparation class that is available to all Georgia high school students through the Department of Education and the governor’s office. All the students have been signed up for the program, she said.

“We encourage our English and math teachers to use that SAT prep class in their classes,” Waldrop said. “That’s one of the things that we think has really, really helped.”