Thank goodness for Mississippi and Alabama.

If not for the two southern states, California students would be at the bottom of the national heap in mathematics, according to the 2009 Nation's Report Card released Wednesday.

The abysmal standing, which reflects in part the state's diverse population, hasn't changed much over the years. California consistently has ranked among the lowest-scoring states in the biennial National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federally mandated assessment of a sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders across the country.

On the plus side, state students have made steady progress over the years, generally keeping pace with their national counterparts - albeit from the back of the pack.

California's fourth-graders outscored their peers in only the two southern states and the District of Columbia, and tied five states. Eighth-graders outscored only Mississippi and the District of Columbia, and tied four states.

Overall, California students performed at or below the national average regardless of income or ethnicity.

"We have nothing to celebrate. It is not a high ranking we are holding on to," said Linda Murray, acting executive director for The Education Trust-West, an Oakland nonprofit focused on closing the achievement gap, in a statement. "The 2009 NAEP results in math are more boulders thrown on top of a mountain of data that scream at us to pay attention."

Achievement gauge

While math instruction varies state to state, the national test is a challenging, comprehensive and a consistent indicator of student achievement, said Stuart Kerachsky, acting commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics, which released the results.

"You can't really escape the conclusion that low performance on NAEP means there is a problem in a state that should be addressed," he said in a Wednesday teleconference.

The national standing poses a conundrum for California education officials, who noted that students' scores improved in math on state tests over the last few years.

In addition, on California's standardized tests, more than half the students test at grade level or above in math, while on the national assessment, less than one-third reach that goal.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell supports a national effort to create common standards at each grade level so that all states teach the same thing at the same time and then test on that level.

Federal officials said California's low standing can be explained in part by a disproportionate representation of students who historically post the lowest scores on the test - English learners, low-income students and Hispanic students.

That means on the national test more of those students are tested in California than elsewhere in the country. For example, 30 percent of the state's fourth-grade students tested were English learners compared with 10 percent nationwide.

4th-graders level off

Federal and state education officials said they are concerned that fourth-grade math scores in California and nationwideleveled off this year after nearly two decades of consistent improvement. Nationally, eighth-grade scores increased to the highest levels since 1990.

And both here and across the country, closing the achievement gap between white and Asian students and their black and Hispanic peers has been an uphill and sometimes losing battle.

"With a lack of progress at fourth grade and large achievement gaps that are relatively unchanged, we need to re-examine our efforts to improve student achievement in math," said David P. Driscoll, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP, in a statement.

The Nation's Report Card, congressionally mandated since 1969, evaluated 168,800 fourth-graders and 161,700 eighth-grade students in public and private schools across the country over six weeks from the end of January to the beginning of March.

For the complete results from the 2009 Nation's Report Card, go to nationsreportcard.gov.