The state Department of Education released data Friday that for the first time document in detail what New Jersey educators have known for years: On average, black, Hispanic and poor children do far worse on state tests than do white and middle-class children.

"An achievement gap related to gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status has been one of the most persistent long-term problems in education,'' Education Commissioner Vito Gagliardi Sr. said in a statement. "It's not just a New Jersey issue. ... It's a national problem."

The data made available Friday are sobering. At every grade level, in every subject area and in nearly every socioeconomic grouping, white students performed far better than black and Hispanic students, while Asian students usually did as well or better than whites.

The gaps the data reveal are striking. On the High School Proficiency Test given to 11th-graders in the fall of 2000, only 51.8 percent of black students and 53 percent of Hispanic students passed reading, compared with 84.7 percent of white students. Data were not provided for Asian students.

On the Elementary School Proficiency Assessment, given to fourth-graders last spring, 77.9 percent of white students and 84.9 percent of Asian students passed the math section, but only 35.2 percent of black students and 47.6 6 percent of Hispanic pupils did.

Two years ago the state released a limited amount of test data broken down by race, but Friday's release provides vastly more detail, down to the district and even the school level.