This report, eighth in a series, is designed to measure progress made by the nation toward the eight National Education Goals. A statement of the eight National Education Goals is followed by an Introduction which explains the indicators by which progress toward the Goals is measured. The Introduction also summarizes national and state findings for areas of improvement and areas of decline, and highest-performing and most-improved states for each of the Goals. The next two sections, "National Progress" and "State Progress", comprise the bulk of the report, and present data for the 26 national and 33 state-level indicators. Although important progress has been made overall towards three of the Goals ("Ready To Learn,""Student Achievement and Citizenship," and "Mathematics and Science"), inconsistent performance and even slippage has occurred for other Goals; therefore, the National Education Goals Panel urges educators and policymakers to study the practices of top-performing states that the Panel documents and disseminates in various of its other publications. Three appendices present technical notes and sources for national and state indicators, and acknowledgments. (LMD)