Students in western Wake County schools continued to post better SAT scores than peers elsewhere in the county. But schools in other parts of Wake are gaining ground.

Students at public high schools in Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina registered an average combined score of 1,090, up less than a point from last year's average.

The results helped bring up the overall county average to 1,073, up 14 points. Wake contends that the average is actually a point higher.

Meanwhile, schools elsewhere in the county, including Enloe High, are catching up to western Wake.

Those schools averaged 1,065, up 21 points from last year.

Last year, SAT scores in western Wake were 4.3 percent higher than the rest of the county. This year, they were just 2.4 percent higher.

While the data, released by the state last week, offered positive signs for students and parents, school officials are worried that fewer students are taking the college admissions test.

About 67 percent of Wake high school seniors took the SAT in 2009, down from 74 percent last year. A similar decline occurred across the state. In 2009, 2,678 fewer North Carolina public school students took the SAT than the year before.

David Holdzkom, Wake's assistant superintendent for evaluation and research, called the drop troublesome. He urged high school principals, teachers and counselors to monitor the situation.

"The economy has been a killer," Holdzkom said. He said more students indicated they're going to community colleges, the military or the work force -- none of which requires an SAT exam.

Holdzkom said that it shouldn't detract from just how well Wake did this year.

According to the state figures, Wake is tied for the third-highest average SAT score among the state's 115 school districts. The other top districts are much smaller than Wake's, which is North Carolina's largest school system. The county also exceeded the state average of 1,006 and the national average of 1,016.

"When you compare us with any other district, we're doing well," Holdzkom said.

Among individual schools in western Wake:

• Green Hope led western Wake schools with a combined average score of 1,136, up 2.7 percent from two years ago. That was the second-highest score in the district.

• Panther Creek, in its first year, had a score of 1,112. That beat Holly Springs, another first year school, by 6.1 percent. That tied Apex High's average for the fourth-highest score in the district.

• Middle Creek had the biggest drop --1.2 percent --after a 2.1 percent gain in 2008.

• Fuquay-Varina was at the bottom with 1,029, up two points from last year.

• Cary High's average jumped 15 points to 1,102.

• Athens Drive's average climbed 11 points to 1,082.

Staff writer Jack Hagel contributed to this report.