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SACRAMENTO — California’s racial subgroups have been showing big improvements in math and reading, although black and Hispanic students continue to score below national standards, according to a report by the state Department of Education. 

The report examined trends in scores for the Stanford Achievement Test, or SAT-9, which allows educators to compare how California students stack up in math and reading against other kids around the nation. 

When breaking scores down by racial subgroups, it found that all groups improved at a comparable rate in both academic categories between 1998 and 2002. 

Black, American Indian, Pacific islander and Hispanic second-graders made the greatest strides in the percentage of students scoring above the 50th percentile. They increased 21 to 25 percentage points in math and 16 to 19 points in reading over the five-year period. Those improvements are compared to the overall state average gains of 19 and 13 percentage points, respectively. 

Overall, students had the biggest gains in grades 2 through 7, with the rate of improvement generally slowing down in the higher grades. Black, American Indian, Pacific Islander and Hispanic high schoolers are all still scoring below national levels. 

Black students posted the lowest scores with only 21 percent of 11th graders scoring above the 50th percentile, only one percentage point up from 1998 scores. 

This year, almost 4.6 million kids took the SAT-9, which is part of the Standardized Testing and Reporting, or STAR exam, which is given annually to students in grades 2 through 11. The six-hour STAR test also includes the California Standards Test, or CST, which tests curriculum unique to California classrooms.