The average SAT score for North Carolina high school seniors decreased slightly - mirroring a dip nationally as more students take the college entrance exam.

The combined critical reading and math score for North Carolina students averaged 1001, down three points from 2010. When the writing portion was included, the total average score in the state was 1475, down five points from last year.

The scores, released Wednesday in the College Board's annual SAT report, are in line with a national decline. The U.S. SAT average was 1011 in reading and math, a decline of four points from the previous year.

Reading scores in North Carolina dropped by two points to 493, while math scores fell by a point to 508. The average writing score was 474, down two points from last year.

The decline occurred in a year when 67 percent of seniors took the exam - the largest group of graduating seniors to take the test in state history.

In a news release, State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson said she was pleased to see more North Carolina students pursuing a college career.

"I hope that as North Carolina's high school graduation rate continues to increase, so will the number of students seeking education beyond high school," Atkinson said.

The number of North Carolina students taking the test rose 4.4 percentage points.

Larger participation may be partly because the College Board changed its rules for reporting SAT scores and began including all scores through June of this year. Previously, March had been the cut-off date for including scores.

As the test-taking pool gets larger, more students of varied academic backgrounds are represented. The pool of test takers in the state was the most diverse ever, the College Board said, and 35 percent of those taking the test said their parents' highest level of education was a high school diploma or less.

Across the South

North Carolina's decline was similar to that of other states. Scores slid in the eight Southern states where more than half of students take the SAT, according to the Southern Regional Education Board.

The good news is that more students are showing an interest in going to college, but the bad news is the scores aren't what states want to see, according to a statement by Joan Lord, a vice president for the Southern states' coordinating organization.

"These declines turn the spotlight on the need to improve reading, writing and math instruction in the middle grades and high school," Lord said.

Also Wednesday, data from the College Board showed that more North Carolina students are taking Advanced Placement courses and performing well on the exams.

Participation grew by 1.8 percent last year in North Carolina and nearly 16 percent in the past five years.