Most Oregon fourth- and eighth-graders have a basic understanding of math and reading skills, but national test scores released on Thursday also show relatively few are mastering the two subjects.

Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – considered the nation’s report card – show that 79 percent of Oregon fourth-graders performed at or above basic levels in math last year, up from 65 percent three years ago.

Seventy percent of the state’s eighth-graders performed at basic or above in math, down from 71 percent in 2000.

On the reading portion of the test, 63 percent of the state’s fourth-graders and 75 percent of the eighth-graders reached basic levels of understanding. Both figures are down slightly.

Reaching the basic level means a student has partial mastery of skills that are fundamental for solid work at each grade level.

Nationwide, 76 percent of fourth-graders reached at least a basic level in math, up from 65 percent three years ago. Among eighth-graders, 67 percent performed at basic or better, up from 63 percent.

The picture isn’t so rosy if you consider the percentage of students who reached ”proficiency” – understanding challenging subject matter and applying it to real-world situations.

In fourth grade, 33 percent of the Oregonians tested reached at or above proficiency in math while 38 percent reached at or above that level in reading.

In eighth grade, 39 percent reached proficiency or above in math and 36 percent reached proficiency in reading.

State Department of Education officials were pleased with the overall results, but know students need to perform better.

”Basic proficiency is probably good enough back in the day, but given the way it is now, you really need to be performing at a higher level,” department spokesman Gene Evans said. ”It’s not enough to meet basic levels in the core subjects. You really need to have some mastery of those subjects.”

Nationwide, about two-thirds of the nation’s fourth- and eighth-graders failed to reach proficient levels in reading and math.

NAEP tests are sanctioned by Congress and are given to a random sampling of students across the country. The results provide the best national comparison of how well students perform from state to state.

Overall, Oregon fourth-graders ranked 32nd in reading and 23rd in math. Eighth-graders here ranked 23rd in reading and 19th in math.

Connecticut ranked first in fourth-grade reading; New Hampshire ranked first in fourth-grade math. Massachusetts eighth-graders ranked first in reading and Minnesota ranked first in eighth-grade math.

The tests were given late last year and earlier this year to about 685,000 students in about 13,600 public and private schools.

The tests are administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, a component of the U.S. Department of Education. The center does not release which schools took part in the test.

However, Bend-La Pine Assessment Coordinator Bob Olsen said Thursday that eight schools in the district participated: Bear Creek, Buckingham, Juniper and Three Rivers elementary schools and Cascade, Sky View, La Pine and Pilot Butte middle schools.

Jefferson County Middle School also participated in the test; information on other schools that may have been part of it was not available.

Because the results are used to help paint a picture of the nation, schools don’t receive individual student results and NAEP is prohibited from maintaining individual student records.

This year’s results are an especially important tool to gauge student performance across the country because for the first time students in every state were required to participate.

The mandatory testing is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Beginning this year, random groups of fourth- and fifth-graders in every state must participate in the test every two years.

The ultimate goal of President Bush’s education reform plan is to close the achievement gap among all demographics of students. By 2014, 100 percent of students at every school are required to show proficiency on state tests, although each state can set what those proficiency levels are.

Evans said merging the NAEP tests with the new federal education law helped states learn whether their own student performance standards were in line with the federal standards.

”If you look at the direction of the NAEP tests over the last four years or so, the Oregon Assessment Tests are right in line with that,” he said.

State test scores show increases in elementary school math scores while reading scores are staying flat, he said. The latest state test scores also show about 76 percent of fifth-

graders meeting or exceeding state standards in both reading and math tests.

”It verifies a lot of the state’s testing system we already have in place and that’s part of the purpose,” he said. ”If you have state tests going in a different direction or much higher than the NAEP tests, that gives people an opportunity to say, What’s going on?’”

The NAEP math test is based on five subjects areas: number sense, properties, and operations; measurement; geometry and spatial sense; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and algebra and functions.

Students read three types of texts representing different contexts for reading: reading for literary experience, reading for information and, in eighth-grade, reading to perform a task.

Students answer a combination of multiple-choice and constructed-response questions.

On the reading test, fourth-graders are required to read a passage and respond to questions based on the excerpt.

Fourth-graders who score at the basic level are expected to be able to recognize why a character in a passage may have behaved the way he or she did; retrieve a fact provided by the text, recognize the genre of a story and identify the main problem facing a character.

Students who score at a basic level or above on the fourth grade math test know how to: add two 3-digit numbers, identify a reasonable amount of time to walk two miles, pick which of four objects is heaviest, and divide one three-digit number by another.

Ted Taylor can be reached at 541-383-0375 or ttaylor@bendbulletin.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.