About one-third of America’s eighth-grade students, and about one in four high school seniors, are proficient writers, according to results of a nationwide test released on Thursday.

Girls far outperformed boys in the test, with 41 percent of eighth-grade girls scoring at or above the proficient level, compared with 20 percent of eighth-grade boys.

Authorities in the federal government’s school testing program said they were encouraged by the results, especially since they seemed to counter other recent indicators suggesting a decline in Americans’ writing abilities.

"Based on our interpretation of the current state law, the public interest demands those e-mails be released." Bubolz said in July he made the request to see if the teachers were doing their job "... the way it's supposed to be done."

"People will know this decision is out there," Jonen said. "The effect will be any public employee that does a personal e-mail at work is subject to having that released."

"There's no misconduct at all; they don't want the public to feel they were misusing resources," she said. "These are e-mails they wrote to their friends, spouse or kids. It's a little unsettling they will be for public view."