Could you please put this into your own words? Ive been having trouble & i am not sure how to do it.The Department of Education points to the...

My paraphrase is in bold throughout.  Each
part I typed paraphrases the part above
it.

The Department of Education
points to the National Assessment of Educational Progress) results, released in July
2005, “showing improved student achievement in reading and math”. More progress was made
by nine-year-olds in reading in the last five years than in the previous 28 years
combined.

The
department is asking people to notice that 9 year olds have improved more in the past 5
years than in the 28 years before
that.

• America's
  nine-year-olds posted the best scores in reading (since 1971) and math (since 1973) in
  the history of the report. America's 13-year-olds earned the highest math scores the
  test ever recorded.

9 year
olds are better in math and reading than they have been in about 40 years, 13 year olds
are better than they ever have
been.

• Reading and math scores for
  black and Hispanic nine-year-olds reached an all-time
  high.

Black and Hispanic 9s
have never been better in reading and
math.

• Achievement gaps in reading
  and math between white and black nine-year-olds and between white and Hispanic
  nine-year-olds are at an all-time low.
  

Those two groups are closer to
white kids than they've ever been (in
scores).

• Forty-three states and
  the District of Columbia either improved academically or held steady in all categories
  (fourth- and eighth-grade reading and fourth- and eighth-grade math)..
  

43 states and DC did as well
as or better than they had been doing.

Many argue that
these statistics are misleading. They compare 2005 with 2000, when No Child Left Behind
didn't even take effect until 2003. They point out that the increase in scores between
2000 and 2003 was roughly the same as the increase between 2003 and 2005, which calls
into question how any increase can be attributed to No Child Left
Behind.

Some people say NCLB
didn't cause this because it didn't go into effect until half way through the 5 year
time period mentioned.  There was just as much improvement before the law as there was
after.

They also argue that some
of the subgroups are href="http://www.answers.com/topic/cherry-picking">cherry-picked -- that in
other subgroups scores remained the same or actually
fell.

Some people say
that the Department only announced the stats that made them look good.  Other subgroups
got worse, they say.