For another specific example, consider the findings in Virginia among pupils of an older age group. Over a period of five successive years, between 1949-50 and 1953-54, the State Department of Education administered the Iowa Silent Reading Test to all eighth-graders in the Virginia public school system. This is a standardized achievement test in reading, employed by school systems throughout the country to discover certain facts of immediate, practical importance to classroom teachers: How well do the children read? How well do they understand? The tests in Virginia were given in May of each year, when all of the children had a grade placement of 8.8 (eighth year, eighth month). Scores on the Iowa test are calibrated to match the grade placement, so that a pupil who scores a reading-grade equivalent of 8.7 would be one month retarded in achievement, and a pupil who scores a reading-grade equivalent of 8.9 would be one month advanced in achievement. This is what the Virginia tests found in May 1954, the month of the _Brown_ decision (findings were not significantly different in the four preceding years): The median white child in the county schools was about half a year behind the achievement level he should have reached; he was reading at a level of 8.3 (eighth grade, third month). But the median Negro child in the county schools was reading at a level of 6.2 (sixth grade, second month). The top one-fourth of the white children (75th percentile) were reading at a level of the tenth grade, third month, or better; but the top one-fourth of the Negro children were not even at the 8.8 level--the 75th percentile among the Negro pupils was found at 7.5. Scores on the Virginia tests were higher in the city schools, but among the Negro pupils, not much higher. In the cities, the median white eighth-grader was found to be reading at a level of the ninth grade, second month; the median Negro eighth-grader scored 6.5. In less statistical language, this means simply that in terms of reading skills, which are the foundation of all other academic skills, Virginia’s white eighth-graders as a group were found in 1954 to be from two years to nearly three full years ahead of the Negro eighth-graders as a group. Subsequent tests, administered on a more limited scale since 1954, have shown no material change.