Southern Black Students Improving Test Scores

ATLANTA (AP) - A new government study shows black students in many Southern states are improving test scores in math and reading, but not enough to narrow an achievement gap with their white classmates.
The study was released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. It shows improvement in nearly every Southern state in performance by black fourth- and eighth-grade students from the early 1990s until 2007.
In a region where vestiges of slavery and segregation have been especially damaging in terms of education, educators say the results are encouraging despite the gap between blacks and whites.
The report uses the National Assessment of Education Progress exam given to students in every state periodically under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
For the report, visit the Institute for Education Sciences: http://ies.ed.gov/