After 10 years of tracking the progress of the standards-based education movement, a survey by Education Week found overall improvement in student achievement nationwide, particularly in math and especially for low-income and minority students.

		On the Internet The full report can be read on the Education Week Web site.

Pennsylvania made the list of states that experienced significant closing of the achievement gap for racial minorities or low-income students in fourth-grade math, without a significant decline in average scores for the higher-performing group.

The achievement gap for black and white Pennsylvania students narrowed in both fourth-grade and eighth-grade math, with the most dramatic improvements for blacks in fourth-grade math on the national exam known as the Nation's Report Card.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2005, white students in the state scored an average of 247 points in eighth-grade math, an increase of 17 points since 2002. Black students scored 219 points, an increase of 25 points during the same time frame.

"Our historic investments in public education are starting to pay off," Gov. Ed Rendell said Wednesday. "We can, and must, do even better, but the Education Week report card reinforces what we know to be true: Smart investment combined with strong accountability is the key to success."

The study called Quality Counts 2006 found that state efforts to create standards, tests and accountability systems in education were related to gains on the NAEP reading and math tests in grades four and eight from 1996 to 2005.

The report does not examine the more recent impact of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which President Bush signed into law in 2002.

The highest grade Pennsylvania earned was a B for its efforts to improve teacher quality. It earned a B- for standards and accountability, a C for school climate and a C- for resource equity.

States that consistently had the highest scores in all categories studied were Louisiana, South Carolina, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Delaware and Connecticut.

Places that averaged the lowest scores were Montana, Alaska, North Dakota, Iowa, Washington, D.C., and New Hampshire.

Pennsylvania scored lower in school climate because the state lacks regulations related to school bullying and does not finance programs to reduce bullying and harassment.

Its lowest grade, for resource equity, was because per-pupil funding is considerably higher in wealthy districts.

Also, the study shows that Pennsylvania is ranked 12th for efforts to improve teacher quality of the 50 states and Washington, D.C.; 30th for the state's standards and accountability; 33rd for school climate; and 35th for resource equity.

In addition to the positive trends in student achievement, Pennsylvania's high school graduation rate and college enrollment figures are enviable. Over the last 10 years Pennsylvania has bettered the national percentage of students who enroll in degree-granting colleges. In that category, it scored 45 percent, which is 7 percent higher than the national average.