But a year-to-year comparison of traffic to major newspapers' Web sites tells a different story.

The bank said results for both periods included a number of unusual items that make year-to-year comparisons difficult.

They did caution that year-to-year comparisons were difficult to make this time for several reasons.

Yet the actual year-to-year comparison was less impressive than it appeared.

School officials said they took those changes into account while making year-to-year comparisons of the test results.

"That makes year-to-year comparisons of true growth very difficult."

The last two Christmas seasons were disappointing, so that year-to-year comparisons with them will be helped.

So a strict year-to-year comparison would not be accurate, they said.

However, with the new methodology, it will be possible to make year-to-year comparison after 2013.

Others noted that the 1986 period was very strong, distorting year-to-year comparisons.