In a written statement ACT president Richard L. Ferguson said, "The relationship between increases in preparation and higher average scores can readily be seen in the recent performance of Native American students.

Although just over half of them report core preparation, and they have some distance to go to catch up to the majority population, they have increased the size of their core-completing contingent nearly 8 percent since 1992, from 43.4 to 51.1 percent. And that has translated into composite score increases in every one of the last four years. No other ACT-tested group, minority or majority, has made comparable overall gains over this period.

Although African-American students who took the SAT posted gains in averages, those who took the ACT dipped slightly. The ACT attributed that dip to a.1 decline in science reasoning, which it in turn blamed on the fact that a lower than average percentage of African-American students completed science courses through physics.

The College Board also reported that the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams has more than doubled over the past ten years. Some ethnic groups exceeded that by many times. The number of African-American students taking AP exams, for example, more than tripled -- and Mexican-American students more than quintupled -- over that period of time. Many colleges and universities grant college credit to students who pass the advanced placement exams. Students take advanced placement exams after taking a course which is specifically geared to the exam.

                                Average SAT Scores

                                   1987    1996

VERBAL                              507     505

   MALE                             512     507

   FEMALE                           502     503

MATH                                501     508

   MALE                             523     527

   FEMALE                           481     492

                                      Ethnicity

                                    1987    1996

American Indian/ Alaskan Native       1%      1%

Asian American/ Pacific Islander      6%      9%

Black or African American             9%     11%

Hispanic or Latino                    5%      8%

White                                78%     69%

Other                                 1%      3%

COPYRIGHT 1996 Cox, Matthews & Associates