U.S. public middle schools have an average of 612 students (2001-2002)
Student/Teacher ratio
U.S. public middle schools have a 15.7-to-1 student/teacher ratio (2001-2002)
MATHEMATICS
Eighth-graders' performance steadily improved between 1990 and 2000.
GEOGRAPHY
Eighth-graders who used computers to a "large extent" scored much higher (273 to 255) than those who did not in a 2001 assessment.
READING
A 2002 survey found 52 percent of eighth-graders have newspapers, encyclopedias, magazines and more than 25 books in their home.
SCIENCE
In a 2002 assessment, private school students outperformed public school students (by 17 points), and children of college graduates did much better than children of parents without a high school diploma (by 36 points).
U.S. HISTORY
In 2001 tests, 65 percent of eighth-graders knew Aztecs had lived in Mexico, while only 35 percent could define the Jim Crow laws.
Source: U.S. Department of Education; all schools did not report in some categories
