Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Virginia's female students improved in the verbal skills segment of the 1994 SAT and scored better than the national average. But they lagged even further behind their sisters nationally in math skills, results show.
``It is troubling,'' said Margaret A. Miller, the State Council of Higher Education's academic affairs chief. ``Clearly there's work for all of us to do, and that includes people in colleges and universities. We all have responsibility for making this situation better.''
Virginia's overall SAT scores have improved somewhat since 1991, particularly in math. The state's verbal score was one point ahead of the national average, even though overall Virginia verbal skills were one point lower than in 1993.
More students in Virginia take the SAT than in other states, however.
Nearly two-thirds of Virginia's high schoolers take the college entrance exam. And those 40,529 students take a higher number of courses in core academic subject areas during high school than their counterparts nationally.
Virginia's female high school students may need more encouragement to take advanced math and science courses, Miller suggested. National studies have shown that girls are discouraged as youngsters from excelling in math or science.
Females in Virginia topped the national verbal exam average score by two points, and were four points over the ranking for all women. But in math, they trailed their male classmates by 37 points, and the males were 12 points lower than men nationwide.
Nationally, this year's SAT math score continued its 13-year rise, to 479 points out of a possible 800. The verbal score was 423, about the same as it was in 1980. Virginia's scores were 469 in math and 424 in verbal.
Women nationwide showed strong improvement on this year's test, gaining one point in the verbal section and three points in math.
Men's average scores fell three points in verbal and one in math.
``What you take in high school determines what you take in college, and what you take in college determines what you'll do professionally,'' Miller said. ``Women are selecting themselves out of the fast track, but that choice is heavily influenced by parents and teachers and peers.''
The same factors emerge in the SAT performance of minority students, who are concentrated in large cities and rural areas where SAT scores routinely fall below the national average, the report said.
Virginia's black students, who represented 16 percent of the test group, had mean scores of 352 on verbal and 382 on math.
Asian students, the state's next-largest minority group at 7 percent of test-takers, outpaced their Virginia classmates in math - 523 - but had lower verbal scores - 411.
Since 1976, however, black students' scores nationally have risen 20 points on verbal and 34 points on math, while the mean scores for white students fell by eight points and two points, respectively.
A record 31 percent of test-takers this year were minority students, showing continued gains in the number of college-bound minority students nationally.
Beyond academics, the SAT study and its state-by-state breakdowns paint a portrait of the nation's college-bound youth. Among this year's highlights are:
Health-related fields, both nationally and in Virginia, rank as the most popular area of college study, followed by business and commerce.
Nearly half of Virginia's students have aspirations toward a master's or doctoral degree after completing four years of college.
71 percent of Virginia's students will seek financial aid to get through school, slightly fewer than the national average of 75 percent.
The overwhelming majority of Virginia's test-takers - 90 percent - attended public schools.
by CNB