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This report examines student achievement scores on tests of reading comprehension and mathematics from studies carried out between 1975 to 1998 and which involved young people in Australian schools. Trends for all students as well as trends for groups of students are examined and results are reported by gender, language background, socioeconomic status and location. Findings indicate growing differences among Australian schools as well as among individual students along socioeconomic lines. While the average achievement on tests of reading comprehension for students from non-English speaking backgrounds was lower than the average for students from English speaking backgrounds, the achievement level had improved over the period. Other findings include: the achievement scores in reading comprehension was higher for female students while male students scored higher in mathematics; no significant differences were recorded between students from non-metropolitan schools and metropolitan schools in both reading comprehension and mathematics; and the widest gaps in average scores remain between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. The report is structured as follows. The first chapter contains the introduction; chapter two describes the data and methodology; chapters three and four present the mean scores, medians and distributions on the reading comprehension and mathematics tests respectively; chapter five examines the changes in background influences on achievements; and the final chapter discusses the results and the implications of the findings for policy and practice. Included as appendices are: Counts of students; Results of multivariate analysis for all cohorts; A note on Indigenous Australian students.