Average SAT scores for Pennsylvania students ticked slightly upward this year, but still fall below the national average.

For the Pennsylvania high school class of 2008, average scores rose one point from last year on the critical reading section, to 494, two points in math, to 501, and one point in writing, to 483.

National averages for the more than 1.5 million students in the 2008 graduating class were 502 in critical reading, 515 in math and 494 in writing -- the same averages reported for the class of 2007.

"Our high school investments have had a positive impact on student performance, as seen by the improved SAT scores, yet it remains clear that we need to continue improving the high school experience," said Gerald Zahorchak, Pennsylvania education secretary.

Specifically, Mr. Zahorchak credited the score bump to state programs such as dual enrollment, which allows high school students to take college classes, and promised new initiatives to further improve scores, such as a model voluntary curriculum and proposed statewide graduation exams.

Nationally, the fact that scores for 2008 did not change from those of the class of 2007 meant that scores remained at their lowest levels in recent memory -- since 1994 for critical reading and since 2001 for math. The writing test was first tracked for the class of 2006.

In a news conference yesterday morning, College Board representatives presented a silver lining to the fact that the scores had not changed from last year, noting that that stability came while the numbers of total and minority test takers increased.

Minority test takers made up 40 percent of the 2008 total, up from 33 percent a decade ago, said the College Board. And in the same period, Hispanic test takers have more than doubled in number, while the number of African Americans taking the SAT has increased 52 percent.

"The conversation is clearly shifting in minority households and the SAT is part of that," said Laurence Bunin, senior vice president of the SAT at the College Board. "We take particular pride in continued high minority participation."

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Zahorchak also praised rising minority participation rates, but expressed concern over the state achievement gap. Reading and math scores for black students were about 100 points lower than the scores for white students, he said, and Hispanic students' scores in those areas lagged about 50 points behind white scores.

The SAT also announced a rule change yesterday that officials touted as helping to reduce test anxiety. Instead of colleges automatically seeing scores from all of a student's test dates, students can choose whether to report their scores.

The change, which will become effective with the March test, means that students can keep secret results from a bad SAT test. They must report a whole test to colleges, however, and cannot cherry pick from their best math or best critical reading scores.