In 1998, 41 percent of Maine eighth-graders tested proficient on the reading portion, which was better than the 36 percent in 2015. The county’s eight grade students ranked fifth in reading and fifth in math. Reading scores decreased in eighth grade while staying stagnant in fourth grade. Reading scores were not much better: flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders than two years ago.
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There were no significant changes in the achievement gap for reading between white students and their black and Hispanic peers. The only increase in proficiency levels on the tests, which is administered every two years, was in fourth grade reading – 41 percent of students were at or above proficiency this year compared to 40 percent in 2013. NAEP tests a representative sample of fourth- and eighth-graders across the country every other year.
Since 2009, 20 urban districts have participated in the voluntary reporting of National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores.
A new nationwide report showing decreasing math scores among Idaho students is “concerning”, Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra said. According to NAEP, each reading score from 2015 represents a statistically significant change from the 2013 assessment results. Reformers will claim their policies are working – but how do we know? “We’re doing our own formative assessments”.
They also acknowledged their work is not done, especially with statewide declines in reading on NAEP and the state’s own annual assessment. The NAEP tests show that two-thirds of eighth-graders are less than proficient in math, and nearly as many are below in reading. Just 31 percent of the state’s fourth-graders were proficient or above in reading in 1992 compared to 43 percent this year.
Dr. John Kelly, chairman of the Mississippi Board of Education, said that we are living in a different era for education in the state.
Young said he had not seen data relating the testing results with Common Core, but the test questions align in most cases with the Common Core curriculum.
Scores for black students were not reported. “I would caution everyone to be careful about drawing conclusions… anyone who claims to have this all figured out is pedaling a personal agenda, rather than an educational one”.
Those one-year snapshots, however, don’t reflect a trend on their own. “We can either choose to assail the standards and tests that give us this information or we can focus on what’s actually going to improve school offerings and the quality of teaching and learning”, she said. “This is the first time in a while that we haven’t seen progress”.
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What’s more, the report showed that while cities have made gains over time toward catching up to overall state and national averages, the few places that did so this time around performed better largely because many of those broader measures dropped. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that the news “isn’t great”, but also that the dip “doesn’t come as a big surprise”.
