The Nation's Report Card[TM] informs the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States. Report cards communicate the findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a continuing and nationally representative measure of achievement in various subjects over time. Results from the 2009 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) make it possible to compare the performance of students in urban districts to public school students in the nation and large cities (i.e., cities with populations of 250,000 or more). Changes in students' performance over time can also be seen for those districts that participated in earlier assessments. Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 18 urban districts participated in the 2009 assessment. Eleven of the districts participated in earlier assessment years, and seven districts participated for the first time in 2009. Between 800 and 2,400 fourth- and eighth-graders were assessed in each district. At grade 4, average reading scores increased since 2007 in 4 of the 11 participating districts, although there were no significant changes in the scores for fourth-graders in the nation or large cities overall. Scores were higher in 2009 than in 2002 for five of the six districts that participated in both years, along with increases for both the nation and large cities over the same period. At grade 8, average reading scores for the nation and large cities were higher in 2009 than in 2007, with 2 of the 11 participating districts (Atlanta and Los Angeles) showing gains. These same two districts of the five that participated in both years scored higher in 2009 than in 2002, although there were no significant changes in the scores for eighth-graders in the nation and large cities in comparison to 2002. Among the 18 urban districts that participated in the 2009 reading assessment, scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders in 5 districts were higher than the scores for public school students attending schools in large cities overall. Scores for 7 districts were lower than the scores for fourth- and eighth-graders in large cities nationally. (Contains 10 figures and 16 tables.) [This report was prepared by Educational Testing Service under contract with the National Center for Education Statistics.]