For the seventh year in a row, Georgia public-school students outperformed their counterparts in the nation’s public schools on the SAT, the state Department of Education reported Wednesday.

Georgia public-school students recorded a mean score of 1030, 35 points higher than the national average for public-school students of 995.

Georgia’s public-school class of 2024 recorded a mean score of 527 on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) portion of the test and a mean score of 503 on the math portion. That beat the averages of 507 and 488, respectively, for students in the nation’s public schools.

“I am so proud of the class of 2024 and their teachers, parents, families, and the communities who supported them,” state School Superintendent Richard Woods said.

“We continue to see Georgia students outpacing the national average on the SAT and ACT and that’s a testament to the work we’ve done in Georgia to invest in our students’ academic recovery post-pandemic and create opportunities in our public schools that prepare every child for life.”

On the down side, Georgia students’ mean score in 2024 was down from 1045 last year. The national mean score also decreased from 1003 in 2023.

Participation in the SAT in Georgia increased, which sometimes leads to moderate drops in performance. The participation rate of 52% of the class of 2024 who took the test at some point during their high school career was down from 50% last year.