The report attributes the widening gaps to greater achievement gains by whites both nationally and in Utah. Also, in math, Utah Hispanics have not improved at the same rate as Hispanics nationally, the report states.

The report is full of comparisons. But achievement working group member Michael Clara hopes the data doesn't get lost in them. Rather, he says the information should be used to address the gap in Utah independent of other states.

"We shouldn't hold ourselves to a comparison standard, to any other state or any other place in the West," Clara said. "We should have a standard that's better than that, that we're going to close the achievement gap."

The State Board of Education is working on the gap through extra reading help in early elementary grades, Peterson said. It also wants millions of dollars to help fourth- through sixth-graders master math before moving on to tougher concepts. That request was not funded last Legislature.

The report, penned by state NAEP coordinator Hal Sanderson, was sent to the Governor's Working Group on Student Achievement, the governor's office and members of the State Board of Education's Coalition of Minorities Advisory Committee, Peterson said. An eighth-grade NAEP analysis is expected in the coming weeks.

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