Students
post higher
test scores
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska
1995 high school graduates followed
a national trend and rolled up higher
scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test,
the state Department of Education
reported Wednesday.
Overall, Nebraska scores increased
by 25 points — 12 points on the
verbal scale and 13 points on the
math scale.
Jack Gilsdorf, department consult
ant, said the increase could be attrib
uted to a change in the test itself.
The test now reflects the strong
reasoning skills college work requires,
he said.
Gilsdorf said most states reported
higher scores and some, like Ne
braska, reported substantial increases.
“It is probably better not to shout
too loudly, ‘dramatic improvement!’
because it is more likely an adjust
ment in the scoring process with the
new test,” he said.
Gilsdorf said that nationwide the
verbal score had increased five points
and the math score three points.
“A gain of 25 combined points in
one year (in Nebraska) is noteworthy
in light of a combined average change
of plus or minus 3.82 (points) over
the previous eight years,” he said.
In 1995,68 percent of Nebraskans
taking the test were “A” students,
compared with 35 percent for the
nation as a whole.
The department analysis stated that
Nebraska’s SAT takers were a more
select group of higher achievers com
pared to the rest of the nation. The
increase in “A plus” students alone (4
percent of the sample) could account
for much of the 25-point increase in
the state’s overall performance, the
analysis stated.
The department also reported that
only 9 percent of graduating Nebraska
seniors took the SAT test in 1994 and
1995, compared with a national aver
age of 42 percent in 1994 and 41
percent in 1995.
“That is the simplest explanation
as to why Nebraska’s average scores
are so much higher than the average
national scores,” the analysis stated.
A department analysis of the 1995
figures showed that boys continued to
outscore girls and that children from
families with incomes exceeding
$70,000outdistanced those with lower
incomes.
Boys had mean scores of504 in the
verbal test and 589 in the math sec
tion, compared with mean scores of
485 and 526 for girls. Male scores
increased 30 points (13 in verbal and
17 in match) in the last year. Female
scores increased 22 points (12 in ver
bal, and 10 in math).
The analysis also showed that while
white students continued to lead all
other groups in verbal skills, with a
mean level of 500, Asian/Asian
American/Pacific Islanders led all
ethnic groups in math with a mean
score of 568, compared with a 562
mean score for white students.
Man who tried to hire
a hit man receives
additional sentence
LINCOLN (AP) - A man con
victed of trying to hire a hit man to
kill an undercover sheriffs deputy
was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to SO
years in prison.
Lancaster County District Judge
Donald Endacott imposed the sen
tence (Mi Billy Ray Billups, 39.
Billups was already in jail on drug
charges when he was accused of try
ing to hire a man, actually an under
cover police officer, to kil 1 the deputy.
The undercover deputy said he
had bought crack cocaine fromBillups
while working on his case.
Prosecutors said Billups wrote a
letter from jail indicating he would
gay up to $40,000 to have the deputy
Stabbing trial in Hastings sent to taffy
HASTINGS (AP) — A man charged with
stabbing his former girlfriend to death told an
emergency room nurse after his arrest that “it
was worth it,” the nurse testified Wednesday.
The prosecution rested its case against Tho
mas McBride after calling the nurse as its last
witness. The jury began deliberations about
3:35 p.m. and was to be sequestered for the
night if it did not reach a decision by 10 p.m.
McBride, 38, is charged with killing 42
year-old Sharon Oster Feb. 5 at the Hastings
apartment of a mutual friend. He had been
charged with holding Oster and her daughter
hostage in 1994, and sexually assaulting Oster
about a year earlier.
Nurse Dave Nissen, who treated McBride at
Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital after his
arrest, said McBride’s hands were covered in
blood. When he asked McBride what hap
pened, the nurse testified, McBride told him:
“That’s all right. It was worth it.”
Nissen also testified that McBride said: “I
didn’t get my boy scout female survival badge.”
In closing arguments, Adams County Attor
ney Donna Fegler told jurors the slaying was
premeditated. She said McBride and Oster
were together in the apartment an hour before
Oster was killed.
Defense attorney Art Toogood did not call
any witnesses, but entered into evidence the
fact that Oster made no report to police of any
threat by McBride between the time she ac
cused him of sexual assault and her death.
An affidavit signed by Oster in a protection
order filed Feb. 16,1994, states that McBride
talked about killing her and her daughter.
Toogood told jurors during closing argu
ments that McBride had not premeditated the
murder, pointing out that he and Ms. Oster met
at the apartment by chance. Toogood said
McBride was also angry at the time of the
killing and was not clearheaded.
A pathologist testified Tuesday that Oster
was stabbed several times in the chest and
abdomen, including one wound that cut the
main artery from her heart. Dr. Blaine Roffman
also showed graphic color photographs of
Oster’s body.
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