California'sAfrican-American, white, Latino and low-income students all have improved significantlyon national tests in fourth-grade reading and eight-grade math over the pastdecade, and at a slightly better pace than the nation as a whole, accordingto a new report.

California leadsthe nation in financial aid offered to low-income college students. It's in themiddle of the pack - 25th - nationally when it comes to college affordability.

That'sabout the end of the good news for the Golden Statein The Education Trust's series of annual Education Watchseries released recently.

The 52reports - each state, the District of Columbia and the nation as a whole - use data fromfederal and state education departments, the U.S. Census bureau and severalprivate foundations to compare student achievement and opportunity across thenation.

Californiadidn't fare well for the most part.

• 34th in per-student funding, with a 7 percent gap between students in high-poverty and low-poverty districts.
• Ahead of only Mississippi in eighth-grade science scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Data were unavailable for seven states, though, so California can delude itself that it's not really that bad.
• 47th in math scores for low-income eighth-graders. High-income students performed only slightly better, coming in at 45th
• Low-income fourth-graders' reading scores ranking 51st.
• California has made no statistically significant progress in narrowing the achievement gap between African-American and white students or Latino and white students in fourth-grade reading sine 1998 or eight-grade math since 2000.
• The California Standards Test showed 51 percent of the state's fourth-graders at proficient or above in reading in 2007, but NAEP results showed only 23 percent proficient or better.

There's avalid reason for that difference, a difference that disappears by the way ifyou look at the 53 percent of Californiastudents who are basic or above on NAEP.

NAEP wasdesigned to test against the ultimate education experience - everythingteachers would want students to know in an ideal world. CST, and moststate-level exams, is designed to measure what students need to know. Not eventhe highest-performing countries would have 100 percent of their students reachNAEP's "basic" level, experts say.

"Simplyput, NAEP's standard for proficiency is set at a level we want every student toreach, while states set their standard for proficiency at a level we expectevery student to reach," the nonprofit Center for Public Education says.

It's yetanother gap that Californiahas to be concerned about nonetheless, given that U.S. Education Secretary ArneDuncan is a NAEP fan.

"Wehave states that tell the public that 90 percent of kids are meeting statestandards, but when we look at how they're doing on the NationalAssessment of Educational Progress, it's nowhere close," Duncantold The New York Times inFebruary. "I'm not going to reward that. I want to be transparentabout the good, bad and the ugly."

The stateand national results do dovetail when it comes to patterns.

When themost recent CST scores were release in August, EducationTrust West also noted achievement gains across ethnic and income groupswhile stressing that achievement gaps persist.

EducationTrust West also noted concerns about inadequate progress in helping studentswho score below basic and far below basic, and that's one of the great ironiesof No Child Left Behind.

Aseducators focus on students close to proficient, more children on the very highand low extremes are being left behind. Someresearch shows that the problem is even more acute for high-achievingstudents