Rhode Island students are making progress in math, but not in reading, according to the results of national tests given to fourth and eighth graders last spring. State education officials say they are particularly concerned that students lost ground in eighth grade reading scores, which dropped two points since the tests were last administered, in 2005.

The results, commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, were released yesterday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). As in past years, Rhode Island’s scores trailed the five other New England states. The state also lags the national average in all categories. The national group, which conducts research for the U.S. Department of Education, does not rank states but places states into one of three tiers. Rhode Island again placed in the middle tier on all four tests.

On a positive note, three student groups in Rhode Island showed significant improvement on the tests — black, Hispanic and low-income students. In addition, the achievement gap also narrowed in most areas for those three groups. This progress is significant at a time when the number of minority and low-income students in public schools is increasing.

Rhode Island has a higher concentration of extreme childhood poverty and a denser proportion of urban centers than neighboring states.

“We are fighting an uphill battle and yet we are getting growth,” said Peter McWalters, state commissioner for education. “That’s wonderful, but we have to do it consistently for a number of years to move the state up.”

In reading, 31 percent of fourth graders tested in Rhode Island were classified as proficient by NAEP’s rigorous standard, up 1 percent from 2005. Just 27 percent of eighth graders met the proficiency standard, down from 29 percent two years ago. NAEP defines proficient as “representing solid academic performance” by students who “demonstrate competency over challenging subject matter.”

Part of the problem is that Rhode Island provides reading support for younger children, but once a student reaches the fifth grade, there is less help for struggling readers, who continue to fall behind, said Mary Ann Snider, director of assessment and accountability for the Rhode Island Department of Education.

“We need to provide much more professional development to teachers in grades five through eight in reading,” Snider said. “That’s the next work for us as a state.”

Mirroring the national trend, Rhode Island students showed gains in math, with 34 percent of fourth graders reaching proficiency, a 3-percent increase from 2005, and 28 percent of eighth graders proficient, up from 23 percent two years ago. State officials credit math specialists and an increased focus on math and science skills as contributing to the increase.

“We’ve had success in improving math instruction because a lot of elementary teachers have anxiety about math and admit they need the help,” McWalters said. “It’s much harder to bring literacy assistance to teachers in sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, who think they are doing that in the first place. But this is a national problem and we need to deal with it.”About half of students scored proficient on all four tests in Massachusetts, the highest-scoring state in the country. Massachusetts is reaping the benefits from the huge investments it made from 1993 to 2003 in urban school districts, said Deborah Collins, director of research and evaluation at the Education Alliance at Brown University.

“Massachusetts had 10 years of a constant funding base, and we just haven’t been able to afford to do that here,” she said. “The [Rhode Island] Department of Education has just started to dedicate targeted funds to urban districts over the past couple of years. Give them 10 years and the funding it requires and then you can provide the kind of support and professional development and leadership that is really needed.”

AS THE ONLY national reading and math tests administered to groups of diverse students in all 50 states every two years, NAEP is considered a gold standard by many educators and policymakers. Nationally, more than 702,000 students took the tests last spring.

About 3,200 Rhode Island fourth graders took the reading and math tests, as did about 2,700 eighth graders, and the students came from virtually every district, said state education officials.

Since the early 1990s, fourth and eighth grade reading and math scores nationwide have improved, and achievement gaps for black students, in particular, are narrowing, according to the National Assessment Governing Board.

While reading and math scores of Hispanic students have also gone up during that time frame, the national achievement gap has not narrowed, in part because the number of Hispanic students nationally has doubled in the past 15 years and some of those students are still learning English, according to the board.

Critics claim that the latest round of scores indicate that students’ gains are insufficient.

FairTest, a national group critical of standardized testing, said that improvement has actually slowed since President Bush’s education reform law, No Child Left Behind, went into effect five years ago.

“Gains from 2000 to 2003, before NCLB went into effect, were significantly greater than they were from 2003 to 2007, when NCLB was the law,” said Monty Neill, an executive director at FairTest. “That deflates the [Bush] administration’s claims that the federal law is driving school improvement.”

The Education Trust, a group that advocates for minority students, disagrees that NCLB is to blame, but says achievement gaps remain too high between students of color and white students. At the same time, the group acknowledged that scores are up for minority students.

“Yes, we’re headed in the right direction, but not quickly enough,” said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust.

The National Assessment Governing Board sets the standard for what it thinks students in fourth and eighth grades should know, and the goal is to have all students reach proficiency or better. The board uses four categories to assess student performance: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced.

Rhode Island’s yearly statewide tests, the New England Common Assessment Program, were developed with Vermont and New Hampshire and are administered in October. The state tests use similar categories, but the standard used to determine proficiency lies somewhere between basic and proficient on the Nation’s Report Card, Snider said.

“The proficiency standard NAEP uses is acknowledged to be at a very, very high standard,” she said. “Our purpose for proficiency is determining if a student has learned the prior year’s materials and is prepared to be instructed at the next grade level with minimal support.”

For more information, visit http://nationsreportcard.gov

jjordan@projo.com