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CHARLOTTE – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools got a mixed bag of results Thursday from a national test on science.

The districtwide sample came from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tested students on three science curriculum categories. While fourth graders more than made the grade compared to the state and national average, eighth graders are lagging behind.

"We outscore North Carolina, we outscore the national public schools, we outscore the large cities, we're above them all," CMS superintendent Peter Gorman said about the fourth graders.

Gorman hopes the numbers will improve even more during the next round or testing, with elementary students expected to go to school longer each day.

"That's a big part of our plan for that 45 minutes is to use it for science and social studies instruction," said Gorman.

When it comes to the eighth graders, Gorman says there's still work to do. The group did better than many similar-sized districts but still finished behind the state and national average on science profiency.

To reverse this trend, district leaders are pushing for more lower-income areas to have access to summer math and science camps.

"Students in different communities disproportionately have access to science experiences," said Gorman.

District officials said it was hard to compare the latest test results with the previous NAEP scores since some of the standards changed. A sample of CMS students have taken the science portion of the NAEP since 2005.