31.   The Clinton administration would like to administer national math and reading tests to better gauge how school-age children are doing in those subjects.

32.   The Los Angeles school system, with its heavily immigrant population, has backed off its original commitment to the reading test because of language issues.

33.   The new test, replacing the multiple-choice third-grade reading test, required students to listen to passages, read for comprehension and respond with grammatically correct essays.

34.   The New York City reading test seems a particularly clear case in point.

35.   The president has sought a nationwide mathematics test for fourth graders and national reading tests for eighth graders.

36.   The reading test would be given only in English.

37.   The results of the state test, which was given in May, mirror the performance on another reading test given by the city school system in April.

38.   The results, which followed gains on reading tests announced last week, caused Board of Education officials and some outside the system to beam.

39.   The results of the standardized reading test will provide one indication, but already there are anecdotal signs.

40.   The state board, for example, has mandated diagnostic reading tests for second-graders to gauge how well pupils are learning to read.