Millions of students across the country aren’t being challenged enough in the classroom, according to a report released Tuesday by the Center for American Progress.

The nonpartisan research and educational institute analyzed three years’ worth of student survey data (2009-11) from the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Among the findings:

• 37 percent of fourth-graders reported their math work was “too easy.”

• More than a third of high school seniors said they hardly write about what they’ve read in class.

• 72 percent of eighth-grade science students say they aren’t being taught engineering or technology.

“Ohio seems to be hovering around the national average in most of these areas,” said Ulrich Boser, the report’s lead researcher and a senior fellow at the center based in Washington, D.C.

Tom Lasley, executive director of Learn to Earn Dayton, isn’t surprised by the findings but he believes Ohio’s implementation of the national Common Core academic standards by 2013-14 will help address that concern.

“What we’ve done in Ohio and other states is we’ve set a relatively low bar,” said Lasley.

“The Common Core is going to level the playing field between states, and between and among school districts,” said Lasley, who leads the nonprofit that aims to increase the number of high school students move on to post-secondary education.

State Superintendent Stan Heffner said the report confirms why Ohio is moving toward the more rigorous college- and career-ready standards.

Those — paired with more rigorous assessments that take effect in 2013-14 — “will put a greater emphasis on problem-solving, project-based learning and student presentations to promote reasoning and give students the chance to show what they know,” Heffner said in an e-mailed statement to the newspaper. “This system will ensure that learning for students will be relevant to their futures.”

School districts also are doing what they can to better engage students in the classroom.

Kettering City Schools Superintendent Jim Schoenlein recalled teaching when the focus was on teaching to students “in the middle” of the learning spectrum. His district two years ago launched a major effort toward “differentiated instruction,” which he said is designed to meet the needs of all students.