New York is among the top states when it comes to improving the achievement of needy children, according to a report that shows most states performing poorly.

The report, by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, found that the eight states making moderate progress for poor and minority students, the top category, were also states that had enacted extensive changes to their education systems. The changes measured in the report included curricular content, standards-based reform, and schools choice, which it found correlated with improved achievement.

“While this doesn’t constitute definitive proof, it does imply that tough-minded education reforms tend to get results,” the foundation’s president, Chester Finn Jr., said.

For the education changes measured in the report, New York was given a C+ and ranked in sixth place, a spot it shared with Ohio and Delaware.

To measure student achievement, the report relied mostly on the 2005 National Assessment of Education Progress tests taken by low-income African American and Hispanic students, but also looked at trends in the performance of these students over the past 10 to 15 years. New York earned a D for student achievement and shared ninth place with Kentucky. The top eight states all earned a D+.

A state Education Department spokesman, Tom Dunn, attributed New York’s relatively good performance to the close attention it has paid to needy students.

“The regents focus on standards, on high school graduation requirements, and focused attention on students in our neediest schools is a strategy that works,” he said. “We have a long way to go yet, but there is progress.”