Latest NAEP results mixed

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The latest U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores show the gap between white and minority students remains wide.

The scores were released Tuesday as Congress prepares to debate changes to the No Child Left Behind Act. Raising scores for poor and minority children was a major aim of the program.

Overall math scores were up significantly, The New York Times reported. But eighth-grade reading scores were down and remained about the same for other age groups.

The NAEP, administered by the Department of Education, is the only nationwide testing aimed at a comprehensive look at student performing. No Child Left Behind allows states to devise their own tests.

President George Bush called the results “outstanding” and said they showed the program is working.

“Overall, we’re doing well, but it’s clear that results are better in math than in reading,” Darvin Winick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests, told the Times. “Probably the educational establishment needs to look at middle school reading to see why we’re not making progress there.”