The test results also are known as the Nation’s Report Card. Last month, Johnson said teachers around the state are working hard to make sure students hit that benchmark. Alabama was praised as a “top truth-teller” the following year because ACT Aspire proficiency levels were closer to NAEP proficiency levels.
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In fourth-grade math scores, the state is now tied for 28th place, while just across state lines, MA claimed the top spot, followed by New Jersey in fifth. In the District, 32 percent of fourth-graders are considered proficient in math. Among eighth-graders, the three-point drop tied with three other states for the largest nationally.
Indiana’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have stalled since big jumps in 2013, and policymakers should start asking themselves why, said Mike Petrilli, executive director of the conservative-leaning Fordham Foundation.
The slippage among the nation’s lowest-performing students raised concerns among educators and experts, who say it should be closely monitored.
Similar gaps were seen in mathematics, and the trend isn’t a good one: Alaskans scored worse in all NAEP tests in 2017 than they did in 2015, the last time the test was administered.
According to the report card, eighth-graders’ math scores remained flat but the group gained 1 point in reading, for an average score of 267 out of a possible 500, according to the data.
The results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress were released Tuesday. “I don’t think there is one blanket answer”, Gopalakrishnan said.
The assessment remains essentially the same each year so progress and patterns can be more easily traced over time.
Scores were also largely flat in Detroit, which ranked dead last among 27 large districts that received their own scores on the assessment. Under the Read to Achieve program approved by lawmakers four years ago, students must be reading at grade level by the end of third grade in order to advance.
Peggy Carr, an assistant commissioner for NAEP, said that while NAEP has “tremendous overlap” with what the Common Core expects students to know, studies have shown they do not fully align.
Regardless, White stated to Carr that students may be dealing “with a variety of social indicators that may correspond with low levels of technology access or skill”.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says the country needs to do better for its students, citing the stagnating reading and math scores. “When we look at peer districts and the country, we’re outperforming the national average, state averages and most cities”.
One hypothesis? Frequent education policy changes.
Carr said NAEP results also showed academic growth for students at the top of the performance scale and continued decline for students at the bottom nationally, but in OH, students at the bottom are performing slightly better than in 2015 in most measured areas.
Despite the lack of growth, Wisconsin students fared better than the nation’s average, as they did in years past.
Given the effort to create a smooth transition to digital testing, it remains unclear why NCES didn’t use larger paper samples, which would have allowed statistically sound comparisons between paper and tablet users in each state and demographic breakdowns.
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The institute also found that the relationship between a state’s previous experience with online testing and changes in NAEP scores is stronger in the 4th grade than in 8th grade, and stronger in English than in math.
