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Young Students Post Solid Gains in Federal Tests
New York Times ^ | 15 July 2005 | Sam Dillon

Posted on 07/15/2005 8:14:58 AM PDT by Racehorse

America's elementary school students made solid gains in both reading and mathematics in the first years of this decade, while middle school students made less progress and older teenagers hardly any, according to federal test results released on Thursday.

. . . 9-year-old minority students made the most gains. In particular, young black students significantly narrowed the longtime gap between their math and reading scores and those of higher-achieving white students, who also made strong gains.

Older minority teenagers, however, scored about as far behind whites as in previous decades, and scores for all groups pointed to a deepening crisis in the nation's high schools.

[. . .]

The results were from a test given to 28,000 public and private school students in all 50 states during fall 2003 and spring 2004. . . .

Nine-year-old students, on average, earned the highest scores in three decades, in both reading and math.

In the reading test, the average score of 9-year-old black students increased 14 points on a 500-point scale, from 186 in 1999 to 200 in 2004. Reading scores of 9-year-old white students rose 5 points, to 226 in 2004 from 221 in 1999. As a result the "achievement gap" between black and white 9-year-old students narrowed to 26 points over those five years from 35. The gap was 44 points in 1971.

. . . Over all, the 30-year trend in reading for 9-year-old students has been one of steady, modest increases, with the sharpest gains in the last five years.

Bush administration officials credited the president's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, with raising the scores.

But groups that have criticized the law, including both national teachers unions, noted that it had only been in effect a year or so when the test was administered.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assessment; education; learning; math; reading
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1 posted on 07/15/2005 8:15:00 AM PDT by Racehorse
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To: Racehorse

Good. Now can we stop saying our schools suck? They don't. And teachers deserve to get paid well.


2 posted on 07/15/2005 8:16:34 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: mysterio


No, Our schools DID suck.. They are finally being cured with accountability.

And, Only GOOD teachers deserve to get paid well.


3 posted on 07/15/2005 8:17:58 AM PDT by Josh in PA
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To: Josh in PA

Our schools never sucked. Don't believe the hype. Some schools are bad. Some teachers are bad. But our schools as a whole have always been good. Most people around here like to point out the failures because they hate unions.


4 posted on 07/15/2005 8:20:18 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: mysterio
?

You're okay with the average student scoring below a 50% on a federal test for Math and English?
5 posted on 07/15/2005 8:21:34 AM PDT by tfecw (Vote Democrat, It's easier than working)
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To: mysterio

Sir.. With all due respect.. No.

Our schools, in whole, for the past several decades.. HAVE SUCKED! The results have spoken for themselves and the anecdotal evidence we see everyday backs it up.

Just because there were a few good eggs in there with good administrators and school boards doesn't excuse the rest of them.

Most schools were bad.. Most teachers were bad.. Unlike the private sector, these teachers have been held unaccountable for the past several decades.

I'm glad you know one school and a bunch of good teachers.. They are few and far between.


6 posted on 07/15/2005 8:24:25 AM PDT by Josh in PA
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To: Racehorse
Information from the NAEP website to help translate the scores in reading. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ltt/reading-descriptions.asp


LEVEL 150: Carry Out Simple, Discrete Reading Tasks Readers at this level can follow brief written directions. They can also select words, phrases, or sentences to describe a simple picture and can interpret simple written clues to identify a common object. Performance at this level suggests the ability to carry out simple, discrete reading tasks.


LEVEL 200: Demonstrate Partially Developed Skills and Understanding Readers at this level can locate and identify facts from simple informational paragraphs, stories, and news articles. In addition, they can combine ideas and make inferences based on short, uncomplicated passages. Performance at this level suggests the ability to understand specific or sequentially related information.


LEVEL 250: Interrelate Ideas and Make Generalizations Readers at this level use intermediate skills and strategies to search for, locate, and organize the information they find in relatively lengthy passages and can recognize paraphrases of what they have read. They can also make inferences and reach generalizations about main ideas and the author's purpose from passages dealing with literature, science, and social studies. Performance at this level suggests the ability to search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations.


LEVEL 300: Understand Complicated Information Readers at this level can understand complicated literary and informational passages, including material about topics they study at school. They can also analyze and integrate less familiar material about topics they study at school as well as provide reactions to and explanations of the text as a whole. Performance at this level suggests the ability to find, understand, summarize, and explain relatively complicated information.


LEVEL 350: Learn from Specialized Reading Materials Readers at this level can extend and restructure the ideas presented in specialized and complex texts. Examples include scientific materials, literary essays, and historical documents. Readers are also able to understand the links between ideas, even when those links are not explicitly stated, and to make appropriate generalizations. Performance at this level suggests the ability to synthesize and learn from specialized reading materials.


So, obviously some growth in the ability to USE information, but still, such a long way to go.

7 posted on 07/15/2005 8:28:30 AM PDT by SoftballMominVA
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To: mysterio

A follow up.

A vast majority of the country (90%+) of the country cannot name a SINGLE Supreme Court Justice.

A vast majority of the country cannot name more than 5 Presidents.

A vast majority of the country knows NOTHING about the Constitution.


Listen to Hannity's "Man on the street" interviews.. THIS IS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC!!!

The majority of the American Public is STUPID thanks to the Public Schools that you a heralding.


8 posted on 07/15/2005 8:30:03 AM PDT by Josh in PA
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To: Josh in PA
The majority of the American Public is STUPID thanks to the Public Schools that you a heralding.

I hope you look in a mirror when you say that.
9 posted on 07/15/2005 8:32:39 AM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: BikerNYC

I WENT TO A PUBLIC SCHOOL!! ENOUGH SAID!!


10 posted on 07/15/2005 8:33:20 AM PDT by Josh in PA
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To: Racehorse
In the reading test, the average score of 9-year-old black students increased 14 points on a 500-point scale, from 186 in 1999 to 200 in 2004. Reading scores of 9-year-old white students rose 5 points, to 226 in 2004 from 221 in 1999.

200 out of a possible 500 is 40%, and 226 out of 500 is 45%.

That's an F.

11 posted on 07/15/2005 8:34:30 AM PDT by Lizavetta (Let not your heart be troubled.......)
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To: Josh in PA

Yes, hoisted by one's own petard.


12 posted on 07/15/2005 8:36:29 AM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: mysterio

TIMSS and OECD measures have shown US student performance to be pretty mediocre in comparison to other developed countries, particularly considering the large resources the US devotes to K-12. These are highly regarded ongoing international comparisons that try very hard to keep the comparison "apples to apples".

How much of this is the effect of schools (management, structure, doctrine, personnel quality) and how much is cultural is pretty difficult to say. Personally I think the fault is mainly cultural.


13 posted on 07/15/2005 8:41:50 AM PDT by buwaya
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To: Lizavetta

Hey, you must have gone to an old-fashioned school to do that kind of math (..admiringly..)

Obviously the person who made up the headline wasn't so lucky ;)

The only reason there are any gains is that NCLB mandated the teaching of phonics for beginning reading instruction.

Oh yeah, and the teachers are all now whining about having to teach to the tests. Awww, they might actually have to teach reading and arithmetic.


14 posted on 07/15/2005 8:54:26 AM PDT by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: buwaya

I think you would be wrong. It may be somewhat cultural in that kids try to take down the academically-superior students, but the plain fact is that since many kids never master reading by 3rd grade (the illiteracy statistic hovers a bit above 40%), their further school performance can only be crippled.


15 posted on 07/15/2005 8:56:57 AM PDT by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: tfecw
The problem is not the teachers. It's the parents that just don't have time to really care that Johnny can't read. They want to be pals with their kid, and boy, if a teacher disciplines little Johnny for being high in class, the parent marches right in because nobody treats their kids that way.

And I think standardized test are a joke. They just make the teachers gear everything towards the test. I think teachers are perfectly capable of determining their own lesson plans without help from the gubmint.
16 posted on 07/15/2005 9:00:16 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: Josh in PA

So by your rationale, most cops are crooked because that's what we hear about the most.


17 posted on 07/15/2005 9:01:13 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: Racehorse

Bush's Fault.


18 posted on 07/15/2005 9:02:50 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Racehorse
This story was on the whatever-you-call-it that runs at the bottom of the Fox News Channel screen -- like a ticker tape or something. Anyway, it said the teachers' unions, etc., credited the improvement to the union rather than to Bush's influence. Guess it's not surprising.

Carolyn

19 posted on 07/15/2005 9:03:32 AM PDT by CDHart (The world has become a lunatic asylum and the lunatics are in charge.)
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To: mysterio


LOL.. Where does that point have any context to the facts?

That's not my rationale at all.. try reading my post, and then try again.


I don't "hear" about bad teachers. I've SEEN THEM IN PERSON.. and I've seen the RESULTS from Public schools.

This has nothing to do with impressions of what I've heard about. You are completely off your rocket.


20 posted on 07/15/2005 9:03:38 AM PDT by Josh in PA
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