The Pew Charitable Trusts

A decades worth of test scores show that US students are making more progress in mathematics than in reading, according to "Raising Student Achievement and Reducing Gaps, " a report released by the National Education Goals Panel.

Using scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a voluntary test issued by the US Department of Education, the report's author, Paul E. Barton found that 8th graders improved significantly in mathematics in 28 out of 32 states participating in the test from 1990 to 1996.

But in 4th grade reading, students in only eight states (Colorado. Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi and North Carolina) reached or exceeded the highest level of performance proficiency.

Only Georgia and Massachusetts moved towards closing the achievement gap between white and minority students in grade 4 math.