North Dakota high school students as a whole continue to show they are better prepared for college courses than their counterparts nationwide, but American Indian students in the state continue to lag behind whites.

The ACT college entrance exam for the high school class of 2008 shows 24 percent of the 6,113 North Dakota test-takers met the college-readiness benchmark score in all four areas: English, math, reading and science. That compared with 22 percent nationally.

However, only 3 percent of the 220 Indian students in North Dakota who took the test met the benchmark score in all four areas. That compared with 25 percent of the 5,419 white students who took the test.

State School Superintendent Wayne Sanstead and Gary Gronberg, an assistant superintendent with the Department of Public Instruction, said the poor showing of Indian students is not a reflection of the quality of reservation schools.

"They have some of the highest teacher salary schedules, some of the highest per-pupil spending," Gronberg said. "It's not a matter of lack of school resources. It's a function of poverty."

David Gipp, longtime president of United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, which is run by North Dakota tribes, said he is saddened by the ACT data.

"It means many of the colleges and universities that may be serving American Indians have a lot more work to do," he said. "Those students (who are not prepared) are certainly at greater risk of not completing (college) if we don't intervene very actively at the outset."

North Dakota students overall continued a trend of performing well on the ACT. On a scale of one to 36, the average ACT composite score in North Dakota was 21.6, the same as last year. Nationally, the average composite score for the class of 2008 was 21.1.

The average composite score for white students in North Dakota was 21.8; for Indian students it was 17.0.

Sixty-two percent of the North Dakota students said they took the core college preparatory courses, the ACT said. Those students had a composite ACT score of 22.7 compared with 19.6 for the students who did not take all the preparatory courses.

"Students who take the recommended core curriculum do so much better than the students who don't," Sanstead said. "Four English (classes), three math, three social studies, three science."

North Dakota's Commission on Education Improvement, which will be making recommendations to state lawmakers next year, is considering requiring students to take the core curriculum, Sanstead and Gronberg said.

Only half the 220 Indian students in North Dakota had taken the core college preparatory courses, compared with 63 percent of whites. White students who had taken less than the core courses had a better composite score - 19.9 - than Indian students who had taken the core courses - 18.2.

Nationwide, a record 1.42 million - or 43 percent - of this year's high school graduates took the ACT. The number of North Dakota test takers dropped this year by 213 students. Sanstead said the decrease is due to declining enrollment, and that North Dakota's participation rate of 81 percent is still among the top six states in the country.

Nineteen percent of North Dakota students tested said they planned to major in health-related fields in college. The next-highest field, business and management, was at 8 percent. Eighteen percent of students were undecided, and 9 percent gave no response.

North Dakota State University in Fargo was the university of choice for 17.5 percent of the students, while 13.8 percent named the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Bismarck State, the next highest, was listed first by 9.6 percent of test-takers.

Rounding out the top five were the state College of Science in Wahpeton at 5 percent and Minot State at 4.5 percent.