US Students Show Limited Gains On NAEP Math, Reading Tests

The release Tuesday of the latest math and reading results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress-known as the Nation's Report Card-generated significant coverage, including a brief story on NBC Nightly News. Most coverage was negative in tone, and those media outlets which did focus on the gains made by US students tempered their coverage with news about scanty progress or persistent racial achievement gaps.

 

NBC Nightly News (11/1, story 8, 0:40, Williams) reported, "There's a new report card out for this nation's students tonight. Tests given every two years in math and reading, students are having trouble, it seems, in both subjects. In math, 40% of our fourth graders, 35% of our eighth graders scored at or above proficient. That's a little better than the last time this test was given in '09. In reading 34% of eighth graders and fourth graders tested proficient or above."

 

The AP (11/2, Hefling) sums up the report with its succinct lede: "Some progress. Still needs improvement." The article continues to concede that students in fourth and eighth grade scored "their best ever in math," while eighth graders made "some progress in reading. But the results released Tuesday are a stark reminder of just how far the nation's school kids are from achieving the No Child Left Behind law's goal that every child in America be proficient in math and reading by 2014." The AP quotes Education Secretary Arne Duncan, "The modest increases in NAEP scores are reason for concern as much as optimism. It's clear that achievement is not accelerating fast enough for our nation's children to compete in the knowledge economy of the 21st century." The AP notes that though Hispanic students "made some small strides" in reducing the gap between them and white students, "there were few noticeable changes in the achievement gap between white and black students."

 

USA Today (11/2, Toppo) reports that the scores "paint a familiar picture: Math skills of the USA's fourth- and eighth-graders are rising slightly, while reading scores are mostly flat." The paper does note that "in three of the tests' four categories -- fourth-grade math and eighth-grade math and reading -- public schoolers' scores rose. Meanwhile, in all four categories, scores of private school students remained flat."

Noting that the results indicate that only "three in 10 US schoolchildren make the grade in reading" while "four in 10 passed muster in math," Bloomberg News (11/2, Hechinger) reports that according to ED data, most states NCLB assessments are "easier to pass than the federal exams," and Duncan has said that "No Child Left Behind encourages states to water down their own testing to qualify for federal money."