U.S. public elementary schools have an average of 441 students (2001-2002)
Student/teacher ratio
U.S. public elementary schools have a 16-1 student/teacher ratio (2001-2002)
MATHEMATICS
Fourth-grade scores increased steadily between 1990 and 2000.
GEOGRAPHY
Sixty-seven percent of fourth-graders could locate the Mississippi River on a map in 2001, but only 34 percent knew the Alps were in Switzerland.
WRITING
Scores for fourth-graders rose significantly between 1998 and 2002, with Asian/Pacific Islanders outperforming all other groups.
SCIENCE
Fourth-grade male students' scores went up and female scores went down between 1996 and 2000, swelling the discrepancy between the two genders' average scores.
HISTORY
In a 2001 assessment, 49 percent of fourth-graders identified the goals of Martin Luther King Jr. and 57 percent knew slavery was a cause of the Civil War.
Source: U.S. Department of Education; all schools did not report in some categories
