Black Students in South Performing Better on Tests

    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.