State education officials Thursday praised the efforts of teachers and students that have led to five years of steady growth in standardized test scores, but they continue to have concerns about an achievement gap between various racial groups.

The state Thursday released results of the 2008 Standardized Testing and Reporting program, or STAR, the first in a flurry of student test-score reports that will come out over the next few weeks.

Statewide, 45.8 percent of students scored at a proficient level or better in language arts, up 3 percent from last year. In math, it was 42.7 percent, up 2 percent from last year.

Ventura County's scores generally were higher. Nearly 52.5 percent of county students scored at a proficient level or better in language arts and 47.3 percent in math, both about a 1 percent increase from last year.

While it's good news, state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell said, "we cannot lose sight of the fact that more than half of our students, and too many students of color, are still not meeting our high standards."

In Ventura County, for example, 75 percent of white fifth-graders scored proficient or better on the language test, compared with 37 percent of Latino fifth-graders. That gap is slightly smaller than last year.

Like most school districts, Ventura Unified has an achievement gap, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Chancer said, but it is narrowing at some schools. At the others, officials are looking deeper into the data to identify the best ways to close the gap, he said.

Oxnard Union High School District officials reported gains, particularly with students still learning to speak English, an area the district has focused on, said Rebecca Buettner, director of assessment and accountability.

But even schools that make gains this year might be less likely to meet standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The federal Adequate Yearly Progress report requires that a certain percentage of students be proficient in reading, writing and math, standards that will begin a steep climb this year, reaching 100 percent in 2014. This year's report is due to be released Sept. 4

The federal targets required about a fourth of students to test at a proficient level or better in 2007, and this year, the targets jump to more than a third.

Without changes to the law, the number of schools failing will continue to grow, even though scores are improving, local and state officials said.

O'Connell has advocated for a federal system that focuses more on improvement than percentages.

"The starting line is not the same for all students," O'Connell said Thursday.

Both the state and federal progress reports are based on standardized state tests students take in the spring. And both require that subgroups of students within a school, such as minorities and low-income children, meet the targets as well.

State and federal measures, however, interpret the scores differently. The state Academic Performance Index, for example, measures the improvement in scores. Those results also are due Sept. 4.

Parents should now be receiving their children's individual STAR scores in the mail. The exams test students in language, math, history and science.

Scores on the California Standards Test, the main component of the STAR results, fall into five categories: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic and far below basic.

Scores for schools, districts and counties are available at http://star.cde.ca.gov.