The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2009 (NCES 2010-458)

At each grade, students responded to questions designed to measure their knowledge of reading comprehension across two types of texts: literary and informational. The results in the report are presented in the form of average scale scores, achievement levels (Basic, Proficient, and Advanced), and percentiles of the score distribution (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th) for grades 4 and 8. Some of the specific comparisons included in the report are: performance of demographic groups across time, White-Black and White-Hispanic gaps, male-female gaps, and the performance of private and public school students.