The high school class of 2000 posted the best math scores since 1969 on the widely used SAT college entrance exam, according to figures released in Washington today.

Charles Sherrill in our Washington Bureau reports on what the test tells us about this year's crop of college freshmen.

It's better news than you might have expected considering the criticism we constantly hear about the quality of public education.

The one and a quarter million high school seniors who took the SAT test this year scored an average 514 in math on scale that ranges from 200 to 800. Utah students averaged 569:

Gaston Caperton/College Board President: "SAT MATH SCORES FOR 2000 HIT A 30-YEAR HIGH."

Verbal scores held steady at 505 for the nation and 570 for Utah, despite the rapidly increasing ethnic and language diversity in American classrooms.

Gaston Caperton/College Board President: "ONE IN TEN DID NOT HAVE ENGLISH AS A FIRST LANGUAGE. AND NEARLY ONE IN TEN CAME FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY."

Gaston Caperton, head of the organization that sponsors the SAT, says this year's results also show a continued narrowing of the gender gap.

Gaston Caperton/College Board President: "SINCE 1990 WOMEN HAVE ADDED EIGHT POINTS TO THEIR VERBAL SCORES AND MEN HAVE ADDED TWO POINTS. SINCE 1980 THE GAP IN MATH SCORES HAS FALLEN BY FIVE POINTS."

88-percent of those taking the test attended public schools. They took more math, science and honors courses and got better grades than earlier graudates.

Gaston Caperton/College Board President: "IN FACT, 40 PERCENT HAD HIGH SCHOOL GRADE POINT AVERAGES IN THE 'A' RANGE, UP FROM 28 PERCENT TEN YEARS AGO."