BY GEORGE GRIFFIN: Special to The Pilot

It has been a while since lawyer Bruce Cunningham wrote his letter expressing concern over SAT scores in Moore County. I was reluctant to respond in a contrary manner because of my great respect for him and his wife and their positive activism in our county.

Also, I’m somewhat reluctant to argue — even in a newspaper column — with someone professionally trained to do just that. I do a pretty good job of accidentally looking foolish on a regular basis without intentionally seeking to do.

That said, his arguments are without merit. I was principal of Union Pines High School in 2001–2002, when our SAT scores made a tremendous leap from the year before. It was an excellent class, and almost half of them took the examination. We ended up with the highest score in the history of the school and a score well above the state and national average.

Of the 80 students who took the test, 36 went on to a four-year college or university. Now if you know anything about the SAT, you know that community colleges not only do not require the test, but they also couldn’t care less whether you took it for purposes of admission. They want you to take the ASSET. Most of that class went on to Sandhills Community College. Thus, 44 of these students took the test unnecessarily.

So, who should take the test? The answer simply is those students who are going to four-year colleges. Not those going to a community college, not those going into the military (ASVAB is theirs), and not those who took a general high school curriculum. The public schools’ college preparatory courses are very demanding — much more so than during my first tenure as principal in the 1970s. But students who take non-preparatory courses do not have the rigorous experience necessary for such an examination as the SAT.

Do the Moore County Schools deny students the opportunity to take the test? Absolutely not, and those who say that that is the case do not know what they’re talking about. As a matter of fact, most students now register online, and the school is not even in the registration loop.

Do Moore County Schools guidance counselors and teachers advise students on what test to take? Absolutely, and they would be remiss in their duties if they didn’t. Why on earth should a student who has had a course of study without advanced math, chemistry, physics, foreign language, etc., expect to do well on an examination that has a background expectation in these courses? Clearly, they are not going to leap from the high school to a university setting with a strong background in auto mechanics or horticulture.

So, the school system should not be criticized for doing its job in an effective manner. Lord knows there are enough things to fuss about — overcrowding, old buildings, long bus rides, teacher shortages and class size, to name a few –– without complaining about one of the things that is being done well. SAT scores, in my view, accurately reflect what the system is doing in preparing students going to four-year colleges. For that they should be applauded, not lambasted.