EVEN THOUGH THE PUBLIC’S most-common “at a glance” evaluation of whether local school systems are “excellent” or “average” or “needs improvement” has been increasingly suspect as a guide in recent years — education is way more than a “go to college” exam — the SAT scores are still of some value. And both the Floyd County and Rome City systems have good reason to point at their outcomes with pride.

Once again, although there was no stunning movement either up or down in the latest results, both the local public systems beat the Georgia average (fairly easy to do, alas) and the U.S. average (far more meaningful for local evaluation purposes).

Both of them have been doing this for years, which is a particularly meaningful result. Class SAT scores fluctuate due to the luck of the genetic pool (having a couple of true geniuses as seniors raises all scores) and how many choose to take the exam. In both this area, and the state as a whole, the numbers trying the three-part (reading, writing, math) mastery exam tend to be way higher than in many other parts of the country.

In a sense, no matter the numerical score (1514 for Floyd, 1508 for Rome out of a possible maximum of 2400) those solid averages, considering the high level of participants, really means most young people exit the public schools with a pretty solid education. That is something to brag about.

Now then … how do we keep all the young folks in school long enough to get to the point where taking the SAT is possible?