11.   In rural Kentucky, reading scores have been raised since AmeriCorps members began giving remedial help to pupils.

12.   Last year, the National Assessment of Education Progress, a standardized test, ranked California dead last, tied with Louisiana in fourth-grade reading scores.

13.   Laura Bush had wholeheartedly supported the campaign promise her husband, Gov. George W. Bush, made to improve reading scores for children in the early elementary grades statewide.

14.   Likewise, the Bush campaign has touted an improvement in third-grade reading scores.

15.   Many principals even resisted the reporting of reading scores or violent incidents for fear such statistics would give a distorted picture of their schools.

16.   Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, reacting to the reading scores, has called for the dismissal of principals of schools performing most poorly on this and other tests.

17.   Missouri officials viewed the test results as steady, with little statistical difference between the reading scores this year and those from previous years.

18.   No associations were found when the markers and reading scores were different.

19.   On Monday night, Ms. Watkins had organized a community meeting of parents to discuss poor reading scores at a local elementary school.

20.   Or ones showing that mothers who talked to their infants in complex sentences saw a later payoff in higher reading scores.