Nevada lags

Some OK news on the education front this week. National test results released Tuesday show students in both fourth and eighth grade continuing to improve in math, while fourth-grade reading scores showed modest gains.

Eighth-grade reading scores remained relatively static nationally.

"We're making slow and steady progress in reading, and we're doing much better in math," said Mark Schneider, the commissioner of the Education Department's research arm.

Unfortunately, Nevada isn't helping to boost the national results. State middle school and junior high students made only minimal gains and continue to perform well below the national average in both math and reading.

Nevada and California bring up the rear when ranked against other Western states.

Keith Rheault, Nevada state superintendent, blamed our lackluster results on demographics -- read: Too many non-English-speaking Hispanics. "Not all student populations are the same for every state," he said.

That's true -- as is the fact that Nevada and California had the highest percentage of test-takers who were not proficient in English.

But it's also true that states such as New York, Florida and Texas -- with significant and growing Hispanic populations -- showed more promising gains.

That's something for Mr. Rheault and other state and local education officials to look at. English immersion, perhaps?

While the Bush Department of Education was touting the national test scores -- the results will certainly be used to lobby for an extension of the No Child Left Behind Act -- it's important to put these results into perspective.

Even with the improvements, only 39 percent of fourth-graders are considered proficient or better in mathematics. Nearly one-fifth still haven't mastered the most basic skills.

By eighth grade, the number of students scoring proficient or higher in math drops to 32 percent, while the number of those who can't do even basic work has risen to 29 percent.

When it comes to reading, only 33 percent of fourth-graders were proficient or better. The number showed no improvement by eighth grade.

Nobody should discount even minimal advancement. But these scores demonstrate we still have a long way to go nationally -- and especially in Nevada.