"I haven't really seen the upswing--you have to put it in the perspective of the drop that have gone before," Dean K. Whitla, a Harvard associate admissions dean and testing expert, said yesterday.

And College Board President George H. Hanford, while calling the statistics "cause for optimism," noted that the gap between average white and minority test scores still reflects "an educational deficit which the nation must overcome."

But the data nevertheless hold forth a tantalizing hope that intense public criticism of the schools in recent years may at last be paying off.

"The pressure is on the school, and they're embarrassed," the Board's Cameron said. In addition, economic hardship is making it increasingly obvious that students need a good education to make it in the tight job market, he added.

Cameron said the overall score rise had been fore shadowed as much as a year ago by rising scores on local tests. ANy improvement from current curriculum reform efforts would take several years to show up in scores, he added.

Education trend-watchers seem destined for confusion in light of the past few months, which have seen encouraging statistical gains on the one hand and widespread worry on the other as the feral government continues to indicate its lack of support for education.

Competitive job markets notwithstanding. The New York Times recently reported that fewer high scholars placed high value on a college education, and that financial and worries were turning more and more towards more immediate earning possibilities. The transfer of responsibility to the states is leading to more cuts in the same special education programs and facilities that may or may not be spewing out slightly more able students.

And even where hard numbers are involved, those who publicize such trends are bound to notice the need for some good news to offset the bad Cameron notes, for instance, that the Board's "unplanned" third release "might have been handled a lot differently" if the board hadn't known that minority scores had climbed.

Once press queries started arriving about minority score patterns, the board "might have released it to reporters on request" it the 1982 figures had been more depressing, he said.