The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), considered the “nation’s report card” in education circles, indicated significant gains in the effort to close the achievement gap in Minnesota.

The greatest gains were achieved at the fourth-grade level where the black-white performance gap decreased by 10-points between 2009 and 2013.  The report also noted that Minnesota was the only state to close the black-white achievement gap in fourth-grader reading during the same time period but that the performance gap in 2013 was not significantly different from the gap in 1992.

Additional Statistics for Student Groups

• In 2013, female students in Minnesota had an average score that was higher than male students by 8 points.
• In 2013, students who were eligible for free/reduced-price school lunch, an indicator of low family income, had an average score that was 28 points lower than students who were not eligible for free/reduced-price school lunch.