The first graduating class led all schools in the nation in the 1989 American College Testing Assessment.

The average score here last year on the American College Testing exam, a college-entrance test, was three points over the national average of 20.

This month the American College Testing Program said that it will no longer wait until students are applying to college before evaluating them.

The article cites high school grades, college grades, and American College Testing scores as evidence.

American College Testing Program Technical Bulletin No. 52.

The school's testing program includes the College Board and American College Testing tests.

The American College Testing Assessment is being redesigned to emphasize a wider range of mathematical knowledge and additional abstract reading skills.

Schools with high Scholastic Assessment Test and American College Testing scores have the highest graduation rates.

Others, mostly in the Midwest and South, take a similar test, the ACT, once called American College Testing.

That difference is consistent in results reported by the other major college-admissions tester, the American College Testing Program in Iowa City.

The American College Testing Program, which administers the A.C.T., brings in about $50 million annually.

Nationwide, 26.9 percent of college freshmen fail to return for their sophomore year, according to American College Testing in Iowa, which tracks college enrollment.

In 1959, Everett Lindquist offered the ACT (American College Testing) for the first time.

ACT - American College Testing (Approved Examination Center)

Many standardized tests for graduate school admissions also have experimental questions, as does the American College Testing program, which is taken for undergraduate admission by 1.25 million students.

Multiple Choice and Essay One of three 40-minute tests prepared by American College Testing, a private testing company, will be randomly assigned to participating students.

Among colleges that are using standardized tests, a popular vehicle is the College Outcomes Measures Project of the American College Testing Program.

The American College Testing Program, meanwhile, brings in about $50 million annually - tiny compared with its not-for-profit counterparts, but up there with the largest private-sector players.

In women's basketball, a player was allowed to practice and receive scholarship money during the 1993-94 and 1995-96 seasons even though her American College Testing scores had been invalidated.

Then Miss Johnson learned about the ACT examination, administered by American College Testing in Iowa City.

The study also criticized the American College Testing program's assessment test, which is taken by almost a million students a year, predominantly in the Midwest, Southwest and South.

The N.C.A.A., which used to administer eligibility requirements itself, decided four years ago to set up the clearinghouse system by using an outside firm, American College Testing.

Nationally, 955,000 students, mainly from the central United States, took the ACT exam this year, said Kelley Hayden, a spokeswoman for American College Testing.

Ray Sullivan, Northeast regional director for American College Testing based in Albany, said: "The SAT is an aptitude test.

Data from the College Board and from American College Testing, publishers of the other major battery of admission tests, offered insights into several current issues in higher education.