The state made gains on the California Standards Test for the seventh straight year, with all students showing improved test scores, state officials said.

Half of all California children were proficient or above in English, up from 46 percent the year before while 46 percent were at least proficient in math, a gain of three points.

Nonetheless, state education officials - for the seventh straight year as well - bemoaned the seemingly unyielding gap in scores between white or Asian students and their black or Hispanic peers. Since 2003, the gaps between white students and black or Hispanic students has barely budged, fluctuating by a few points, but generally stagnant.

"The number one priority of my office is to close this persistent achievement gap that deprives too many students of color opportunities to succeed in school and in life," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell in a statement.

Statewide, for example, 37 percent of African American and Hispanic students were proficient or above in English - 31 points behind white students.

The state tests students in grades two through 11 in math and English, with high school students also tested in history and science.

Locally, the annual release of standardized test scores today evoked the perennial cheers and tears as an academic year of effort was summed up across California, with scores available for each district and school. This year, cheers far outnumbered tears.

Test scores across the Bay Area seemed to mimic the state's gains, with San Francisco, Oakland, West Contra Costa and high-scoring suburbs like Pleasanton posting three- to five-point gains in math and English.

In San Francisco, school officials were eager to divulge test results that continued to surpass state averages by several percentage points. In 2009, San Francisco schools posted an uptick of about three percentage points in math and English. Across the district, 54 percent of students were proficient in English and 53 percent proficient in math.

Yet more significantly, city schools attacked the achievement gap, with African American students and Hispanic students outpacing the majority of their peers.

"We have cause to celebrate. Our whole district made significant gains and our African-American and Latino students made even greater gains than their peers," said Superintendent Carlos Garcia. "We still have a long way to go but this shows it can be done. The achievement gap is narrowing."

But there's always a "but."

Just 27 percent of San Francisco's African American students were at grade level in English. That's half of the district's average and 10 points behind black students statewide - scores at least in part related to the city's disproportionately greater percentage of low-income blacks.

Economically disadvantaged black students posted the lowest scores in the state, save special education students and English learners.

E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.