Results from a national standardized test for younger students show mostly stagnant scores in Nevada, though small gains were made among minority students.

“We all have a long way to go to ensure that all students are achieving at levels we all know they are all capable of,” Brett Barley, superintendent for student achievement, said during a conference call on Monday. “We are seeing really significant gains, in particular, our Hispanic and our African American student population.”

The National Center for Education Statistics released on Tuesday the 2017 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a federal test conducted every two years that helps determine education funding. Nevada’s NAEP results come from a sampling of students in 128 elementary and 93 middle schools.

The state reflected the overall flat test scores for reading and math nationwide. But reading levels among Hispanic fourth graders were up 3 percent from 2015 to match the national average in proficiency at 22 percent. By comparison, only 13 percent of Hispanic fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2009. Forty-four percent of Nevada’s fourth-grade students are Hispanic, which is higher than the national average of 27 percent.

Meanwhile, 20 percent of African American fourth graders in Nevada scored proficient in reading — a 6 percentage point jump from 2015. The proficiency level also exceeded the national average for that subgroup by 1 percentage point.

Although those gains represent good news, there’s still work to be done to bridge the racial divide that exists between minority students and their white peers.

Black and Hispanic students’ test scores were roughly 20 percent lower than their white counterparts in reading and math.

A similar achievement gap exists for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch scored significantly lower than those who are not eligible, officials said. Nevada has a larger share of students who qualify for the free or discounted lunches than many other states. Sixty-eight percent of Nevada fourth graders, for example, qualify compared with 54 percent nationally.

State officials credited the bevy of education reforms championed by Gov. Brian Sandoval with helping boost achievement among minority students and disadvantaged children. Those reforms include Zoom and Victory schools, which funnel extra money toward schools with large numbers of students learning English or living in poverty. A separate Read By Grade 3 initiative aims to boost literacy among the state’s youngest students.

The 2017 Legislature appropriated $72 million for a weighted funding formula that allocates more money for students in poverty and English Language Learners who are not already in Zoom or Victory schools.

“Overall our students are not where we want them to be, but I’m encouraged by the results we’re seeing in areas where the state has made investments in English Learners and Early Literacy,” state Superintendent Steve Canavero said in a statement. “While we have begun to narrow some achievement gaps, we are still behind national averages so we have much more work to do to meet our goal of becoming the fastest improving state in the nation.”

Other takeaways from the report card:

• Thirty-one percent of Nevada fourth graders — 2 percentage points more than in 2015 — scored proficient in reading compared with 37 percent nationwide.
• Thirty-one percent of Nevada fourth graders scored proficient in mathematics, down 1 percentage point since 2015. Nationally, 40 percent of fourth graders are proficient in mathematics.
• Twenty-eight percent of Nevada eighth graders are proficient in reading, up 1 percentage point from 2015, but still below the national average of 36 percent.
• Twenty-seven percent of Nevada eighth-graders scored proficient on the mathematics exam, a 1 percentage point increase since 2015. Thirty-four percent of eighth graders nationwide are proficient in mathematics.

“I think we’re always hopeful that it would be higher, but we also know that to move the needle with NAEP, it will take more reform locally and at the state level,” said Mike Barton, the Clark County School District’s chief academic officer.

Barton also noted that the Clark County School District outperformed other large, urban school districts — including some in states that have higher per-pupil funding — in certain categories. In reading, for instance, Clark County fourth graders scored better than their peers in Dallas, Cleveland, Houston and Los Angeles and similar to students in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York City.

The median per-pupil spending in New York for the 2014-15 school year — the most recent information available — was $22,658, according to a report released by the state last year. Nevada’s average per-pupil funding this year sits at $9,183, which factors in basic state support, categorical funds, federal funds and local tax revenue.

Barton said that illustrates the “positive return on investment” the Clark County School District is already seeing with its current resources. He said scores could rapidly improve if more money was directed to the right places.

“Let’s get the resources where they need to be,” Barton said.

NAEP uses three categories to assess performance: Basic, proficient and advanced. The proficiency achievement level, as defined by NAEP,  indicates students who have “demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including subject matter knowledge.”

In 2017, the tests were electronically administered for the first time. Officials in the state said the digital transition among first-time computer users did not affect scores.

“They went to great lengths to ensure that there was no change in the outcomes as a result of how the test was administered,” Tom MacDiarmid, NAEP state coordinator said.