The Associated Press
FRANKFORT - Kentucky fourth-graders did slightly better than their peers in the rest of the nation in a national assessment of writing skills.
Eighth-graders did more poorly and even slipped further behind, according to national figures released Thursday.
Taken together, about 85 percent of the children in the two groups have at least a basic grasp of what it takes to write essays, communicate information and compose arguments, the scores indicate.
Scores, which were for 2002, are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which bills itself as the nation's report card.
Writing had been last tested in 1998. Kentucky fourth-graders did not participate that year. But in 2002, they posted a collective score of 154, one point higher than the national average.
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