The U.S. Department of Education publishes the biannual “Nation’s Report Card,” also called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which monitors and reports on nationwide student achievement in mathematics and reading, and in other subject areas. The Report Card produces estimates of overall national achievement, and conducts demographic subgroup analysis by state, gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity, by administering one- to two-hour tests to randomly selected students from randomly selected schools nationally. Navigate to the Nation’s Report Card Data Explorer, which can be found at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/xplore/nde. Consider the eighth grade mathematics assessment to respond to these questions.

a. In the most recent year for which data is available, in which state was white students’ eighth grade mathematics achievement the lowest? The highest? In which state was black students’ eighth grade mathematics achievement the lowest? The highest? Provide mean scores for each case.

b. In the most recent year for which data is available, in which state was girls’ achievement the lowest? The highest? What about for boys? Provide the mean scores for each case.

c. Nationally, what is the achievement gap between white and black students? What is the achievement gap between male and female students?