PORTLAND (AP) – Maine youngsters remain among the nation’s best readers but their performance hasn’t improved significantly over the past four years, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results released Thursday.

The good news was that the 2002 assessment showed fourth- and eighth-graders rank among the nation’s best readers, that there’s no significant gap between wealthy and poor or rural and urban students, and that boys made progress toward closing a gender gap, state officials said.

The bad news was that although the numbers were good, they hadn’t improved since the last assessment in 1998, they said.

While pleased with the state’s national ranking, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said she is committed to improving the students’ performance on the test administered by the U.S. Education Department.

“Our goal is to ensure that all students in Maine are proficient,” Gendron said at a news conference in Portland.

The 2002 assessment showed 72 percent of fourth-graders and 82 percent of eighth-graders earned a “basic” or better rating.

Compared with their peers in other states, Maine’s fourth-graders scored 8 points above the national average and eighth-graders were 7 points above the national average, officials said.

Boys lagged behind girls by 6 points for fourth-graders and 10 points for eighth-graders in Maine. That’s an improvement over a 15-point gap four years ago, but it’s still an area of concern, Gendron said.

Gendron said she was concerned enough about the gender gap to appoint a task force to examine the issue.

“Our initial focus needs to be the gender gap,” said Gendron, who hopes to have a plan for remedying the problem by year’s end.