California students continue to perform near the bottom of states in reading and math, 2015 test results released Wednesday show. And even when taking into account factors like the predominance of English learners and poor children, a new analysis indicates that the state would still end up in the academic cellar.

What’s sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, a sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and math, painted a dismal picture of a state that insists it is prioritizing K-12 education, on which it is spending $53 billion this fiscal year. Average fourth-grade math scores place California among the worst, just one point on a zero-to-500 scale above New Mexico, Alabama and Washington, D.C. Eighth-graders performed a bit better, nearly the same as students in nine states, and above those in five states and the nation’s capital.

Just 27 to 29 percent of California students were rated proficient in the two subjects.

Reformers point to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, as proof of public schools’ persistent failure. “California’s broken education system continues to fail our kids,” Manny Rivera, a spokesman for the advocacy group Students Matter, wrote in an email. “Too many of California’s students — especially low-income and kids of color — are falling further and further behind, yet our state’s education system continues to hum along to a status quo that fails to produce the results our kids deserve.”

Students Matter has sued to change the state’s rules on tenure, layoffs and teacher dismissal and evaluation.

But California educators dismissed the scores’ significance.

The NAEP tests aren’t completely aligned with the Common Core State Standards, the educational regimen around which the state is designing its curriculum, state Department of Education spokesman Bill Ainsworth wrote in an email. “Consequently, we do not believe they are a good measure of California students’ progress.”

Angelica Ramsey, associate superintendent of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, pointed out that some districts have been slow to roll out Common Core, a curriculum that’s more rigorous than previous standards. “I think we’re going to see scores continue to increase,” she said. “We’re just not quite there yet.”

Eric Heins, a Pittsburg Unified teacher and president of the California Teachers Association, agreed. “We’re doing things so differently in California,” he said. “It’s better to look at the metrics we’re using.”

The NAEP test, administered early this year to a representative sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders nationwide, is the only standardized test given across the nation. Results aren’t released for individual students nor for participating schools. Test-takers are chosen at random from a sampling of schools reflecting the demographics of the state and nation.

If there’s good news, it’s that even with wholesale changes in curriculum introduced by the Common Core State Standards and new computerized state testing, California students didn’t slip backward on the NAEP from 2013, the last time it was administered. The test is unrelated to state Smarter Balanced standardized tests.

An independent study released Monday by the Urban Institute examined states with similar demographics, such as growing numbers of students living in poverty. In that study by the institute’s Matthew Chingos, California fares somewhat better, posting the 13th-highest gain in scores over a 10-year period.

But the state’s 2013 scores, which are statistically similar to the 2015 ones, still put the state at the bottom in the institute’s analysis: tied for 39th in fourth-grade reading, 44th in eighth-grade reading, 46th for eighth-grade math — and dead last in fourth-grade math. Other states whose students offer a similarly challenging demographic mix, such as Florida and Texas, performed far better than California.

The dismal NAEP showing confounds educators and parents of children excelling academically. Kimberley Gilles, who teaches in the high-achieving San Ramon Valley Unified School District, wonders whether NAEP scores correlate with the state’s comparatively low per-pupil spending.

“We do spend a lot of money on education, but not what we could,” she said. “What bothers me is that California says it really wants quality education, but what it really wants, it seems, is quality education on the cheap.”

Others point to strong job protections, like tenure and seniority, that make it difficult to ensure quality teaching. Rivera of Students Matter said the state must get serious about improving education, “and that includes removing barriers to the most important in-school factor impacting student’s educational outcome: an effective teacher in every classroom.”

Staff writer Joyce Tsai contributed to this report. Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter.com/noguchionk12.