"We're kidding ourselves if we think we're a high-performing state educationally."

Students in Utah aren't doing very well on national tests compared with students in states with similar demographics, according to a Utah Foundation report released Thursday.

Utah students tend to score around or slightly above the national average on national tests such as Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). But students here should be doing much better than average given Utah's relatively low student poverty rates, ethnic makeup and college-educated population, the report said.

"We're kidding ourselves if we think we're a high-performing state educationally," said Utah Foundation president Stephen Kroes. "We have a student population that has the potential to be a very high-performing population and something is limiting our ability to perform like we should."

Utah eighth-graders scored the lowest on the NAEP in math and reading in 2007 compared with five states with similar demographics, including Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska, the report said. Each of those states had at least two of three similar demographics in terms of student poverty, parental education levels and/or ethnic makeups.

"Utah has significant demographic characteristics that should lead to high test scores, rather than merely average performance," the report said.

Low per-pupil funding, teacher quality and training, curriculum differences and/or cultural attitudes about educational achievement could be to blame for Utah's relatively disappointing performance, it said.

But the report concludes that when it comes to NAEP data, more research is needed to discover exactly why Utah isn't measuring up.

Brenda Hales, Utah state associate superintendent for student achievement and school success, agrees about the need for research. The State Office of Education has been looking into the issue for years and will continue to do so, Hales said. But officials still can't say exactly what causes Utah students to score below their peers because so many factors play into student performance.

"What we're finding is there are more things we're doing the same than differently," Hales said. She said the Utah Foundation report contains useful information, but researchers must look beyond poverty levels, ethnic makeup and parental education when comparing states.

She said factors such as dropout rates and population mobility and growth, among other things, might also play into why states with similar types of students perform differently on national tests.

"It appears as though we don't have all the missing pieces," Hales said. "You have to look beyond those demographics, which is what makes using test comparisons between states extremely tricky."