The news release and other documents in this packet report information about the nation's 1996 high school graduates who took the American College Testing Program (ACT) Assessment. The packet contains, in addition to the news release, the 1996 Summary Report of national data, "The High School Profile Report, Normative Data: A Description of the Academic Abilities and Nonacademic Characteristics of Your ACT Tested 1996 Graduates" (national report only), and "Cautions on the Use of State Aggregate ACT Scores." The national average composite score on the ACT, a college entrance examination taken by nearly 60% of America's entering college freshmen, increased to 20.9 in 1996, from 20.8 in 1995. This is the third year of the last four in which the national average has increased. This average was derived from the scores of the 925,000 high school graduates who took the ACT Assessment. The increase in the national average score for 1996 can be attributed in large part to the performance of female students. In addition, research has consistently shown that higher level preparation in the core courses is very strongly associated with higher achievement on the ACT Assessment. In turn, ACT scores relate directly to students' postsecondary performance. The relationship between increases in preparation and higher average scores can be clearly seen in the recent performance of Native American students. Although they have not caught up to the scores of the majority population, their increased core course completion is reflected in the largest overall gain among ACT-tested groups. Hispanic students, Mexican American students, and Asian American students increased their scores in 1996. African American students held their scores steady, with the exception of a slight decline in science reasoning. The relationship between advanced courses and overall performance on the ACT is especially apparent when the sequence of mathematics courses is examined. (SLD)