Photo by Llyfrgell Genedlaethol… on Flickr.

The DC CAS results have been delivered with as much fanfare as the royal baby. The news is indeed good, but there’s still a long way to go.

Tweets have been flying and school officials crowing: this year’s DC CAS results show undeniable progress. DCPS students have reached their highest proficiency levels since testing began in 2007. And DC charter schools made their highest gains since 2009.

In DCPS, scores went up in every subject area from last year. Math was up by 3.6 percentage points, reading by 3.9, science by 1.8, and writing by 4.6.

Mayor Vincent Gray and others are heralding the rise in scores as a vindication of the reforms set in motion by former DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee and carried forward by her successor, Kaya Henderson.

After years of growth that was stagnant or negative, DCPS deserves a moment to bask in the glory. The achievement is even more impressive given that this year’s tests were largely aligned to the recently adopted Common Core State Standards. Other school systems that have given Common Core-aligned tests have seen sharp drops in scores and panic from students and parents.

It’s also striking that scores in writing have increased by almost 17 percentage points since 2011, the first year the writing test was given. About 50% of students who took the test scored proficient or advanced this year.

But the overall DCPS proficiency rate is still only 48.4%, and the system has set itself an ambitious goal of reaching 70% by 2016-17. It’s still far from clear that goal is achievable.

Other problems remain. The achievement gap between white and minority students persists. The reading proficiency rate for white students is 92%, while Hispanic students are at 52% and black students at 44%. Low-income students have only a 42% proficiency rate.

And charters continue to outperform traditional public schools, especially when it comes to low-income and minority students. Charter school proficiency rates were 58.6% in math and 53% in reading.

Natalie Wexler is a DC education journalist and blogger. She chairs the board of The Writing Revolution and serves on the Urban Teachers DC Regional Leadership Council, and she has been a volunteer reading and writing tutor in high-poverty DC Public Schools.