“D.C. students’ test scores no longer worst in country” was the headline The Examiner ran with this morning, which sure is one way to put it.

Yesterday marked the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, widely seen as a benchmark for student performance at the national and state levels. D.C. was included in a special section comparing the math performance of a number of urban school systems, which is a more useful metric than comparing us to, say, Massachusetts.

The results are promising. As the Post writes, the NAEP data show that DCPS “was the only one of 11 studied in 2007 and 2009 to make significant strides in grade 4 and 8 math scores, in an analysis that excluded charter school scores. Its gains in fourth grade since 2003 were triple those found in the nation as a whole and roughly double those for all large cities.” WAMU also points out that the progress made by D.C.’s Hispanic students is particularly notable, including a 15-point jump for Hispanic 8th graders.

Overall, D.C. 4th graders tied for 14th place with Milwaukee, out of 18 cities. The 8th graders tied for 16th, again with Milwaukee. For both grades, Detroit is last, and Austin and Charlotte trade off between 1st and 2nd places.