WASHINGTON -- Black and Hispanic students across the nation are narrowing the achievement gap with whites in reading and math, but Nevada blacks for the most part are not.

The 2005 scores for grades four and eight come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the most-respected measure of how students perform nationwide.

The results are noted in both academic and political circles because they cover math and reading, the two building-block subjects that schools are scrambling to improve.

Across the country, math scores overall were up in grades four and eight. In reading, fourth-graders nearly held steady, and eighth-graders declined.

Nevada overall improved slightly in three out of four categories, gaining 1 point in eighth-grade reading, 2 points in eighth-grade math and 2 points in fourth-grade math. The state stayed the same in fourth-grade reading.

But the results weren't enough to raise the Silver State from the bottom rung of all states tested, which included Washington, D.C.

The strongest results nationwide came in math, where black and Hispanic students in both grades posted their highest scores since the test began in the early 1990s.

In reading and math, blacks and Hispanics either shrank their test-score gap with whites or lost no ground.

But blacks in Nevada lost more ground to whites in math and reading despite an 8-point improvement in eighth-grade reading.

Eighth-grade black students scored 240, compared with 261 by whites in 2005.

The achievement gap between blacks and whites in Nevada grew 5 percentage points for fourth-graders in math from 2003 to 2005.

Blacks scored an average of 214 in 2005, compared with 240 for whites. The top score is 500.

The achievement gap for black fourth-graders in Nevada increased in reading compared with whites by 3 percentage points between 2003 and 2005.

Blacks scored an average of 192, compared with 219 for whites in 2005.

The achievement gap for black eighth-graders in Nevada increased in math compared to whites by 3 points.

Blacks scored an average of 247, compared with 280 for whites in 2005.

Nevada Hispanics fared better, narrowing the achievement gap in two categories and maintaining the gap in another between 2003 and 2005.

They narrowed the gap in eighth-grade reading by 5 percentage points, scoring an average of 241, and the gap in eighth-grade math by 4 percentage points, scoring an average of 256 in 2005.

Hispanics maintained their gap in fourth-grade reading, scoring an average of 194 in 2005.

But the gap in math between fourth-grade Hispanic students and fourth-grade white students in Nevada grew by 1 point. The Hispanics' average score was 219 in 2005.

The improvement by minorities nationally is significant because schools face pressure to improve achievement by minorities under President Bush's No Child Left Behind law.

Black and Hispanic students lag behind whites in access to quality teaching, college degrees and other measures of success.

Federal officials spotlighted the national trend of minorities closing the achievement gap.

"This is an encouraging report," Bush said Wednesday from the Oval Office. "It shows there's an achievement gap in America that is closing."

But minorities still fall behind by sizable margins.

Based on their average score in math, many black fourth-graders do not have the skills to classify numbers as even or odd or the skills to determine the next number in a given pattern.

"The absence of really bad news isn't the same as good news," said Ross Wiener, policy director for The Education Trust, which focuses on poor and minority students. "If you're concerned about education and closing achievement gaps, there's simply not enough good news."

The goal of the test is for students to show they can handle challenging subject matter and apply their knowledge to real-life situations, a skill level known as proficient.

Less than four in 10 students in both grades have reached at least that level in either math or reading.

In reading, almost no state improved its performance significantly in either grade, and some states saw declines. In math, several states got better, especially at fourth grade.

Nevada scored below national averages in every statistical category tested in 2005.

The Silver State's overall performance in math and reading had not changed significantly since 2000.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Keith Rheault said Nevada's steady scores during the past five years show that the state is performing better than results indicate.

He said that Nevada had a large population of students whose main language is not English and that the population has grown by 600 percent in the state in the past decade.

"When you look at overall state averages, it looks like we're in the lower quarter of states," Rheault said. "But when you look at who we are serving, we did pretty well."

Of Nevada's students who took the exam in 2005, 16 percent of the students were non-native English speakers, compared with 11 percent nationwide.

Nationally, 36 percent of fourth-graders were at least proficient in math, up 32 percent from 2003.

Among eighth-graders, 30 percent were proficient or better, up from 29 percent.

In reading, the news was less promising.

The fourth-graders held steady as 31 percent scored at or above proficient, the same as last time. Their average test score did increase by 1 point.

Meanwhile, eighth-graders got a little worse in reading: 31 percent showed mastery over challenging work, a 1-point drop from 2003.

Much higher numbers of students in both subjects showed at least basic skills.

The results in reading mirror a long-term trend in which 9-year-olds posted their best scores ever in 2004, but 13-year-olds and 17-year-olds showed no improvement.

Schools must do more to teach older students sophisticated skills, such as taking ideas from different places and drawing a conclusion, said Cathy Roller, director of research and policy for the International Reading Association.

"We need to put as much emphasis on that as we are basic comprehension skills," she said.

Review-Journal writer Antonio Planas contributed to this report.