The College Board recently released some encouraging statistics concerning the number of minorities taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test. A higher percentage of students who took the SAT last year were minorities, although minority performance on the test remains well-below national averages.

Minority student participation in the SAT increased by a third over the last decade. Showing improvement in the statistics were African-Americans (seven-point increase, 856 average score in 1999), Puerto Ricans (28/903) and American Indians and Alaskan Natives (42/965). Mexican Americans (12-point drop, 909) and Hispanic/Latino (-5/927) test-takers fared worse as a whole, although the influx of participants in these groups might account for the decrease.

The College Board announced it will offer SAT courses on the Web, which should help students who can’t afford expensive test preparation courses. Yet, online SAT preparation courses will help only students who have Internet access. The problem with the online service is the students who lack Internet access are often the same students who cannot afford expensive test preparation courses. In these cases, the online SAT preparation material will not help.

The newest statistics from the College Board show clear progress for minorities – not in the form of increased scores, but in increased access to the SAT and therefore higher education. Before a strategy can be devised to raise minority scores, the test must first be accessible to minorities. The College Board is going in the right direction by offering free SAT preparation courses on the Web, but the real answers concerning disparities in scoring must start long before senior year in high school.