The Nation's Report Card: Science 2000 - This report presents results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2000 science assessment at grade 4, 8 and 12, and at the state level for grades 4 and 8 for participating jurisdictions. The top six states in 2000, in grade 4, were Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota and Vermont. In grade 8, the top 10 states and other jurisdictions were Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, and the Department of Defense domestic and overseas schools. Between 1996 and 2000, NAEP found no statistically significant difference between the average science scores of 4th- or 8th-grade students, but found that the average score of students in grade 12 did decline. (Christine Y. O'Sullivan, Mary A. Lauko, Wendy S. Grigg, Jiahe Qian, and Jinming Zhang, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, January 2003)...