Despite some progress closing the achievent gap in recent years, children of color continue to lag behind their white classmates on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) tests. In 2006, children of color trailed in every category of the 4th grade reading, writing and math WASLs. On the reading test alone, 16.9% of African American students, 16.8% of Native American students and 14.7% of Hispanic students exceeded the standards, compared to 32.8% of white students.