SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The percentage of Illinois schoolchildren meeting state mathematics standards rose at three grade levels for the second year in a row, figures released Tuesday show.

Still, only half of eighth-graders meet or exceed math goals as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, compared to 74 percent of third-graders and 61 percent of fifth-graders.

At the same time, there was little improvement in the percentage of students at all grade levels who met reading and writing goals. And state schools Superintendent Glenn "Max" McGee pointed out a glaring achievement gap between whites and minorities and middle-class and poor children.

"We have some nice movement in mathematics. We also have a serious achievement gap we need to address," McGee said at a state Capitol news conference.

While 64 percent of whites meet state standards in eighth-grade math, only 19 percent of blacks and 29 percent of Hispanics do. Only 24 percent of low-income students meet eight-grade standards while 61 percent of middle- and upper-class pupils do.

The achievement gap is an old, worldwide problem, University of Chicago researcher Larry Hedges said. He said at the present rate, it could take another 50 years to erase the problem in the U.S.

"Poor kids are disadvantaged before they ever get into school by lack of access to various other kinds of educational situations," Hedges said.

Debate could intensify

Although McGee will step down when his three-year contract ends in December, the attention he and others have drawn to the gap could intensify debate among lawmakers about addressing inequities in the school funding formula.

A state effort to try to make class sizes smaller to give kids more individual teacher attention has decreased average class size. But an Associated Press analysis last month showed that most schools that had high rates of poverty and minorities among students had larger-than-average class sizes.

The 3-year-old ISAT test has shown steady, if small, improvement in math. Percentages of students meeting math goals have increased at all levels in each of the three years.

Western Illinois University math professor Judith Olson said that is because classrooms are adapting to the tough standards.

"Teachers became much more aware of doing something in mathematics other than the usual, traditional approaches, which included basically doing textbook problems without discussion and without doing additional problem solving," Olson said.