This is the fifth annual edition of the Brown Center Report on American Education. It analyzes the difficulty of items on the math portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), examines the content training of middle school math teachers, and evaluates the Blue Ribbon Schools Program. The NAEP assesses student performance and periodically issues what is known as the Nation's Report Card. The No Child Left Behind Act requires that all teachers demonstrate mastery of the curriculum that they teach. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program singles out highly successful schools for national recognition. Measuring what students know, staffing classrooms with competent teachers, rewarding excellence--these are all activities of profound importance to the vitality of the nation's schools. (Contains 26 endnotes.)