WASHINGTON (AP) - The results of the latest Nation's Report Card are in and the news isn't good.

Fourth-graders made no improvements in math or reading. Eighth-graders' scores were flat in math and only slightly improved in reading.

Roughly a third of eighth-graders are proficient in reading and math. For fourth-graders, it's about 40 percent. The results show the achievement gap persists. African-American students were outperformed by their white peers at both grade levels.

Peggy Carr, of the National Center for Education Statistics, says the increase in eighth-grade reading scores was due to improvement among higher-performing students. Eighth-grade reading scores increased in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Washington.

At the same time, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware and Louisiana were among those seeing lower fourth-grade math scores.