Source

As school lets out for summer, check out "The Nation's Report Card," (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/site/home.asp), compiled by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Since 1969, the NAEP has tracked academic performance of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-graders in a range of subjects. Suffice it to say, the grades aren't exactly the sort parents like to brag about. From the recently released "Reading Report Card For the Nation and the States": "Across the three grades (4, 8, and 12) in 1998, the percentages of students…who performed at or above the Proficient level were 31, 33, and 40 percent; and the percentages who performed at the highest achievement level, Advanced, were 7, 3, and 6 percent."