This paper highlights the results of analysis of achievement trends, described in report "Changes in Student Performance by Achievement Class and Model Class." This paper extrapolates from the complete study those findings that have the most direct implications for education policy and decision makers. Overall, students in the lowest performance quartiles realized greater gains than did those in the highest performance quartiles. In the lowest quartile, black students in the modal grades appropriate for 9-, 13- and 17-year-olds increased in reading and mathematics performance, and fourth graders in the highest quartile also increased in reading and mathematics. Moreover, black eighth graders in the highest quartile increased in reading performance, too. Often, gains by blacks in the modal grades exceeded those by whites in the modal grades. Both white and black 17-year-olds in the 11th grade who performed in the highest quartiles suffered substanial losses in mathematics and science. A section titled "Considerations for the Future" and a bibliography are included. Primary type of information provided by report: Results (Change) (Selective). (Author/PN)