Since its inception in 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been regularly assessing the nation's students in public and private schools, serving as a barometer of educational attainment. This report in brief is excerpted from "NAEP 1992 Trends in Academic Progress," which presents trend data in science, mathematics, reading, and writing. Approximately 31,000 students were involved in NAEP's 1992 trend assessments. Student performance is characterized at five levels along the proficiency scales, and percentages of students reaching each level are presented. For reading and writing, results are also presented for individual tasks. In general, trends in science and mathematics show noteworthy improvements since 1983, while trends for reading show slow declines for the same period. Writing performance has been relatively stable for grades 11 and 4, with a recent improvement for grade 8 that awaits support in subsequent years. Eleven tables and four figures present trend data in brief form. (SLD)