Wyoming’s fourth- and eighth-graders are still outperforming the national average in reading and math, despite a drop in reading from earlier scores, according to the 2015 Nation’s Report Card or National Assessment of Education Progress released Wednesday. Kloosterman said that was nearly certainly a result of a state policy that called for schools to retain students in the third grade if they didn’t pass a standardized reading test. That meant the lowest-scoring students were held back and were not included in the fourth-grade testing sample. That’s down two points from 2013, and marks the first decline for that measure since 1990.
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On top of that, no states scored significantly higher than Florida’s African American and Hispanic students, and only three states scored significantly higher overall on grade 4 reading.
Those concerned with improving education should focus not on how much is spent, but who can direct spending.
McQueen emotionally noted in her public speech that Tennessee students “jumped” over 12 other states in fourth-grade reading to claim the spot as 25th in the nation in that category, based on the state’s own analysis of rankings. Just 31 percent of the state’s fourth-graders were proficient or above in reading in 1992 compared to 43 percent this year.
City math scores on a national test for fourth graders dipped in 2015, while reading scores held almost steady, data published Wednesday shows. “Our strong eighth-grade reading results are particularly encouraging”. “The uptick in JCPS scores indicates that the school system is making substantial progress in implementing new college and career-ready standards and important headway in boosting student achievement”. Kids from low-income families, and disabled students, also continue to score lower than the state average. In eighth grade reading scores, the gap grew to 27 points between white and black students and fell to 19 points between white and Latino students.
Carey Wright, state superintendent of education, said the NAEP scores show Mississippi is making significant strides toward improving student outcomes and commended students and teachers for their work. They were flat in the rest.
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Officials at the federal level cautioned against naming this year’s lower numbers a downward trend. Mississippi fourth graders are closing the achievement gap. Math scores for both grades budged only a point or two on a 500-point test, which the Wyoming Department of Education deems not statistically significant.
