This report represents one step in Arizona's statewide student assessment program. The data presented here identify student achievement in grade 8, the end of the elementary school experience, in the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The needs assessment program (ENAPA) is described in section one. The design for this evaluation is described in section two in terms of what is being assessed, the tools used, the reporting of scores, the representativeness of the sample, the accuracy of the sample, characteristics of the sample, data collection, and data processing. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Cognitive Abilities Test were the instruments used. In section three, test results are presented according to Arizona Predicted and Obtained Mean Grade Equivalents, along with national norms. A breakdown of Arizona Obtained scores by ethnic and sex subgroupings is given, as is a comparison between predicted and obtained scores for each ethnic subgroup. Median data for the Arizona sample is compared with national, Far West, and Southwest norms. Results are given for vocabulary, reading comprehension, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, usage, mathematics concepts, and mathematics problem solving. (KM)