I love finding sources of data that I can draw on later when doing research or helping a client understand their communities. As I find interesting sources of data, I'll post them under this new heading.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is a national test given to a nationally selected sample of students periodically (recent tests were given in 2003, 2005 and 2007). Its goals are to compare student achievement in states and other jurisdictions and to track changes in achievement of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-graders over time in mathematics, reading, writing, science and other subjects.

In Minnesota, the percentages of students showing proficiency or advanced achievement in math have steadily increased in the last 15 years, while those in reading have stayed more steady.

Raw data you can use to perform your own analysis can be found here, with one data set dating back to 1970.