The District’s fourth- and eighth-graders made significant gains on national math and reading tests this year, posting increases that were among the city’s largest in the history of the exam.

Students at the city’s public charter and traditional schools also showed more improvement than nearly every state on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam the federal government has administered every two years since the early 1990s. Results of the tests, known as the Nation’s Report Card, were released Thursday morning.

Even with the gains, the city’s scores — which have long trailed the rest of the nation’s — remain at the bottom of state rankings, with achievement gaps between white students and their black and Hispanic classmates being among the country’s largest.