
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 17, 1995                   TAG: 9508170080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

MINORITY ENTRANCE SCORES UP

Entrance test scores are up for incoming minority college students, a national profile shows. Overall, new college freshmen matched the entrance test scores of recent classes.

The national average score on the ACT, an entrance exam taken by nearly 60 percent of entering freshmen, remained steady this year at 20.8, according to the results released Wednesday by the American College Testing Program. That followed increases of one-tenth of a point in 1993 and 1994.

The score range is 1 to 36. Some 945,000 high school graduates nationwide took the exam, which consists of four tests of reasoning skills in English, mathematics, reading and science.

Minority graduates showed improved scores over last year. The national average for black students, for example, was 17.1, up from 17.0 last year.

Native Americans increased their average for the second straight year, to 18.6 from 18.5, the only group of minority students to do so in 1995.

Mexican-American students raised their average score two-tenths of a point to 18.6, reaching higher levels in all four subject areas tested, but the average score for other Hispanic students dropped dramatically, from 19.3 to 18.7.

That decline likely was caused by the 59.1 percent increase in the number of students identifying themselves as Hispanics, from 15,119 last year to 24,054, said ACT spokesman Kelley Hayden.He said ACT officials don't know the cause for the large expansion of the group.

by CNB