(Washington, D.C.) – Today’s results from the 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend assessment offer tremendously hopeful news about the achievement of elementary school students: Nine-year-olds have posted the highest scores in reading and math since these federal assessments began in the early 1970s.
At the same time, African-American and Latino achievement has soared, and, as a result, the achievement gaps among 9-year-olds are smaller than they have ever been in the history of the long-term NAEP.
“These gains at the elementary scho