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Scores dipped for the high school class of 2002 on the ACT college entrance exam, breaking a five-year streak during which results remained unchanged, the test maker said Wednesday. 

ACT Inc., a non-profit based in Iowa City, Iowa, said the drop was to be expected because Illinois and Colorado began requiring that all high school juniors, starting with the class of ’02, take the test whether or not they are enrolled in college-prep courses. 

Using scores students received on the latest ACT they took, 2002 graduates averaged a composite of 20.8, down from the 21 average maintained from 1997 to 2001. 

In California, ACT scores stayed steady at 21.4. More than 40,700 California students took the test last year, double the number of students a decade ago. Girls made up nearly 65 percent of the test takers in the state. 

ACT vice president Don Carstensen said the company plans to add a writing section to the California version of the test by 2004. The company decided to make the change because the University of California system proposed dropping college entrance exams. 

In Ohio, 62 percent of 2002 graduates took the exam and averaged a composite of 21.4. 

More students than ever took the ACT, 1.12 million of this year’s graduates, or about 46,000 more than last year. 

This year’s results are the first since Illinois and Colorado began assessing their public schools by having all 11th graders take the ACT at state expense, even if they don’t plan on attending college. 

Richard Ferguson, chief executive of ACT, said in a statement that the requirement had a positive result: “Thousands of students in Illinois and Colorado who had not indicated an interest in attending college were identified as ready for college coursework.” 

Illinois added the ACT to its two days of state tests to assess learning. Colorado is using ACT scores to evaluate schools, but also to encourage more students to attend college. 

David Bahna, an assessment consultant in Colorado’s Education Department declined to comment on the scores before seeing results from other states. 

Robert Schiller, Illinois schools superintendent, said his state’s policy might open doors for students unable to afford the $25 test fee, or who never realized they were college material. 

In college admissions, the ACT is designed for use with high school grades to predict academic readiness for college. Scored on a 1-36 point scale, the ACT is actually four exams: English, reading, mathematics and science.