Student achievement gaps between white and black students in South Carolina mirror how other students are performing on the nation's only standardized test.

A new U.S. Department of Education study shows black students have narrowed the achievement gap in math but remain behind white students in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

NAEP is given to students in all 50 states and is the only test where states can compare student performance with other states. All school districts and states must participate or risk losing federal Title 1 funds to support highpoverty schools.

The new U.S. Department of Education study examined scores between the early 1990s and 2007 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The study found South Carolina's NAEP math scores have increased dramatically in recent years while reading scores have not improved at the same rate.

"South Carolina's NAEP math scores have increased dramatically in recent years for both white and African- American students, and that's good," State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said. "But while scores for both groups are improving, African-American students must improve at an even faster pace if we want to close the gap."

Overall, South Carolina's fourth- and eighth-graders score near national averages in math and slightly below national averages in reading.

In 2007 NAEP results, South Carolina fourth-graders ranked 33rd in the nation in math and 42nd in reading.

A small sample of Cherokee County students were included in the South Carolina test data used in the NAEP study. These included students from Blacksburg Middle, Ewing Middle, Goucher, and Grassy Pond elementaries.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires states to participate in NAEP, which is the only assessment that allows "apples-to-apples" comparisons between students. State-by-state NAEP results are reported every two years.