In comparison with other southern states, Maryland students’ SAT scores are high, but still below the national average and facing pressure from demographic trends, according to a report released today by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).

Of the 16 states scrutinized by SREB, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that advises southern states on education issues, only Virginia students had average SAT scores in 2006 that exceeded the national average of 1021.

The average SAT score in Maryland for 2006 was 1012, down two points since 1997. By contrast, most SREB-represented states improved their college admission-test scores from 1997 to 2006, according to the report.

SREB’s member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Part of the story about Maryland’s SAT struggle, according to the report, has to do with an increasing number of minority students taking the test. “Closing performance gaps among all groups of students also remains an issue for both the nation and the region,” the report said.

In Maryland, that performance gap is striking – the average SAT score of black students in 2006 was about 240 points lower than for whites -- and as more minority students take college admissions tests, their relatively weaker performance shows up in overall results.

The percentage of black Marylanders taking the SAT shot up by about 50 percent in the last decade, but (unlike in most Southern states) their average scores have declined, according to the report. SAT Declines for black students were also seen in Delaware and Florida.

There is some good news, too, in the report: Maryland and Virginia outscored the country on the new writing section of the SAT.