SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced that California students are showing improvement on the SAT I College Entrance exam. California's public high school class of 2005 showed progress for both the verbal and the mathematics portions of the SAT Reasoning Test, according to figures released today by The College Board.  Scores improved by an aggregated total of 5 points in the past year.

"I am very encouraged by the SAT results," O'Connell said. "It is clear that California students are benefiting from California's move to higher standards and expectations, and more are setting their sights on higher education. I'm also particularly pleased that students in every numerically significant ethnic group in California showed gains in both participation and achievement on the exams. Results are on the rise at the same time more students are taking the tests and the pool of test takers is increasingly diverse."

The average score for the state's public high school students for the verbal section of the SAT increased three points — from 496 to 499 — over last year, while mathematics scores increased two points — from 519 to 521. These scores compare with the average verbal score of 505 and with the average mathematics score of 515 for public school students nationwide.

The number of SAT takers in California public schools was also up sharply from last year. The number of California public high school students who took the college entrance exam was 146,877 this year, a 5.5 percent increase over the 139,000 public high school students who took the test last year.

Participation on Advanced Placement exams has also increased significantly, showing more students are taking the rigorous courses that will help them succeed in college and the workplace.

Both male and female students had increased scores on the SAT verbal and the mathematics tests, the males by an aggregate of 5 points and the females by an aggregate of 6 points.  Scores also increased on both exams for all ethnic groups. In the aggregate, the gains for African American, American Indian, Asian, and white students were all 10 or more points higher than last year on the two tests.

National SAT results are posted at http://www.collegeboard.com (Outside Source).