Eighth-grade students around California and the nation can write better essays and more persuasive arguments than they could four years ago, but they still have a long way to go before being deemed proficient writers, according to new test scores released Thursday.

And California fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders scored below the national average.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress -- known as the nation's report card -- released results from its 2002 round of writing tests for fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders around the country.

In California, the percentage of eighth-graders deemed proficient writers bumped up from 20 to 23 percent -- still low in comparison to the nationwide percentage, which jumped from 27 to 31 percent. Among fourth-graders, 23 percent of the state's students were deemed proficient, versus 27 percent nationwide.

"It shows we have a lot of work to do, and we need to be focused on writing in our schools," said Rick Miller, director of communications for California's Department of Education.

He said the addition of writing into the state's own academic standards assessment, known as the STAR test, for fourth and seventh grades would help.

On the NAEP writing test, California saw the biggest improvements among Latino students and those learning English as their non-native language; both groups jumped nine points on the 300-point scale. Nationwide, Latinos gained just five points.

"The particular attention the state has paid to our burgeoning English- learner population is beginning to pay some dividends," Miller said.

Overall, though, the picture was fairly bleak, especially among 12th- graders, whose proficiency level nationwide held flat. But the percentage of high school seniors who could write at least at the most basic level -- meaning they showed some organization and understanding of their assignment -- decreased from 78 to 74 percent.

Mary Ann Smith, director of governmental relations and public affairs for the National Writing Project, based at UC-Berkeley, said students' lackluster performance on the test as a whole showed the need for states and districts to place more emphasis on writing instruction. An important way to do this, she said, is to incorporate writing into all subjects -- from science to math to history.

"Let's say in history, if a teacher invited me to take the position of a British soldier in the War for Independence and write home to my countrymen about what was happening to me, it might help me think about the war in some new way," she said.

NAEP has been testing students since 1969 in reading, math, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography and the arts.

Nationwide, 276,000 students from 11,000 schools were tested. Only results for fourth- and eighth-graders were broken down by state, and only results for eighth-graders were compared with the last round of testing in 1998. Overall, 16 states showed significant gains, and none showed meaningful declines. .

For complete results, look on the Internet at http://nces.ed. gov/nationsreportcard/.