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The results of the first post-lockdown National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were released on June 1, and they showed anything but progress. Most subgroups took a big hit, but Blacks and Hispanics suffered the greatest damage. Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the test, said, “These results are sobering. It’s clear that covid-19 shocked American education and stunted the academic growth of this age group.” (It’s worth noting that the NAEP given during the 2019-2020 school year, before the pandemic craziness took hold, revealed that U.S. students’ scores in both reading and math...

Four to six months ahead of possible testing times, the test's commissioner pre-emptively canceled this only way to measure the effect of varying school shutdown regulations across state lines.A federal agency is canceling congressionally mandated nationwide tests scheduled for 2021, ending the only way to reliably measure the effect of different school shutdowns across state lines until approximately 2023, the agency’s commissioner announced the day before Thanksgiving.“The change in operations and lack of access to students to be assessed means that NAEP will not be able to produce estimates of what students know and can do that would be comparable...

NAEP's changes might cause better test results, but they fundamentally alter the meaning of reading comprehension, which would hurt students. Much like the SAT adding an adversity score and the ACT allowing specific subject retakes, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “nation’s report card,” is easing its standards to improve its numbers. As with the SAT and ACT, these changes carry significant implications for the way English is taught in American schools. This year, the NAEP’s governing board plans to change testing to “optimize the performance of the widest possible population of students in the...

While cultural debates have roiled primary and secondary education, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has been largely free of ideological conflict. Known as the “nation’s report card,” NAEP tests students in math and reading and, less often, in civics, U.S. history, and science. These tests are not high-stakes student assessments because the NAEP does not calculate individual scores; rather, it measures school-system performance by state and large districts, and, as such, it is the nation’s best indicator of trends in student learning. The NAEP’s current framework defines reading comprehension as “a dynamic cognitive process,” involving “Understanding written text”; “Developing...

Only 37 percent of U.S. 12th graders were prepared for college-level coursework in mathematics and reading in 2016, but many public school districts have become fixated on the latest progressive trend of “social and emotional learning.” There is little to boast about when it comes to the state of U.S. education. As Breitbart News reported in April of 2016, only about 37 percent of U.S. 12th graders are prepared for math and reading at the college level, according to the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – also known as the Nation’s Report Card. A recent report also found...

The average performance of the nation’s high school seniors dropped in math from 2013 to 2015, but held steady in reading, according to results of a biennial test released Wednesday. The results, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also showed a drop in the percentage of students in private and public schools who are considered prepared for college-level work in reading and math. In 2013, the last time the test was given, 39 percent of students were estimated to be ready in math and 38 percent in reading; in 2015, 37 percent were judged prepared in each subject. In...

On the last day of 2015 the longest serving member of President Obama's Cabinet, Arne Duncan, quietly stepped down from his official position as what the Washington Post called "the most powerful education secretary in U.S. history." The federal government now provides about 10 percent of the money spent on public schools, and Duncan used that money, to an extent never before, to impose his will on local schools. Arne's departure is a good time to review what's wrong with America's public schools and how the federal government has made them worse. Instead of giving an account of his stewardship,...

When two schools meet in a basketball game, the winner is indisputable. One team outscores the other. The same is true in certain types of academic competition. When students take standardized national tests, students from some schools outscore students from others. In the most recent round of National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, which are administered by the U.S. Department of Education, the winners were indeed indisputable. Catholic schools thrashed public schools. It wasn't close. "In 2011," says the Department of Education in a report on the NAEP tests, "the average reading score for eighth-graders attending public schools was 19...

Nearly a decade after Mayor Bloomberg’s school reforms, New York City students show little progress.The only reasonable conclusion to draw from this week’s report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is that reading and math achievement by New York City’s students is dismal and has remained so for almost a decade. Known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” the federal test compares progress by fourth- and eighth-graders in 21 large cities. A mere 24 percent of all New York City eighth-graders read at the NAEP proficiency level (and only 12 percent of black and Hispanic students). In eighth-grade math,...

Detroit's (predominantly black) public schools are the worst in the nation and it takes some doing to be worse than Washington, D.C. Only 3 percent of Detroit's fourth-graders scored proficient on the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, sometimes called "The Nation's Report Card." Twenty-eight percent scored basic and 69 percent below basic. "Below basic" is the NAEP category when students are unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level. It's the same story for Detroit's eighth-graders. Four percent scored proficient, 18 percent basic and 77 percent...

Not Ready for Algebra by: Irene Warren, November 04, 2008 A trend shows that elementary and advanced math students have fallen below the national average. The Brown Center on Education Policy hosted an event at the Brookings Institution recently to discuss possible ways to better prepare students to succeed in higher-level math courses. “Algebra in eighth grade was once reserved for the mathematically gifted student” the Brookings Institution noted in an October 2008 events announcement. “From 1990 to 2007, national enrollment in algebra courses soared from 16 percent to more than 30 percent of all eighth graders.” However, proficiency scores...

Non-Alignment of Standards Not Culprit for Low Scores By Matthew Ladner, Ph.D Recently I appeared on the Horizon public affairs program together with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, to discuss the No Child Left Behind law and our state AIMS test. During the discussion, Superintendent Horne said the main reason Arizona students perform poorly on the national NAEP test, also known as the Nation's Report Card, is due to a non-alignment of standards. If, for example, Arizona does not teach the math concepts in fourth grade that appear on the fourth grade math NAEP, one could expect lower...

Willie Angelo's grasp of math, never firm, took a sharp nose dive just before Christmas. "Towards the end of last semester, it was all building up," said Angelo... "It was too much for me to handle." So there he was at a recent early-morning tutoring session with his teacher, struggling to learn polynomials - mathematical expressions studded with digits, X's, exponents and parentheses. He's not alone. Students across Colorado are struggling with math, according to results of statewide achievement tests. And the test scores go down as the students get older. The vast majority of students - 68 percent -...

So many New York City students received extra time and other accommodations on a respected national test this year that several testing experts are saying the results should be considered invalid. On the test known as the nation's report card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, New York state gave accommodations to more fourth-graders than any other state in the nation, and New York City gave more help than any of the ten other major cities that participate in a separate city-by-city comparison. On three of four tests the accommodation rate hovered around 20%. On the last — a fourth-grade...

An examination of the trends in recent test scores shows the good news is that Arizona forth graders are improving; the bad news is the gains aren't lasting. The chart below presents fourth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress reading trends for two different income groups of Anglo and Hispanic students in Arizona. We see positive trends in all four categories of students. Since 1998, the percentage of low-income Anglos and Hispanics who score at the "basic" level or better-meaning they read at grade level-increased by 21% and 44% respectively. Among higher income Anglos and Hispanics, scores increased by 10%...

In June, the Goldwater Institute released A Test of Credibility. The essence of the argument: Arizona's Terra Nova exam produces unrealistically high scores (above the national average in every subject and grade level), when national tests show Arizona consistently below the national average. Both results can not be true. ADE recently issued a response filled with misconceptions. The Goldwater Institute will soon post a response to the ADE's critique on its website. If you'd like to get to the bottom of this issue in a hurry, however, simply look at Figure 1 below. Figure 1 compares Arizona's performance on the...

Pop quiz. Which has been most important in reducing poverty over time: a) taxes, b) economic growth, c) international trade, or d) government regulation? We know what our readers would say. But lest you think American young people are slouching toward serfdom, you'll be pleased to know that 53% of U.S. high school seniors also answered "b." The latest version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) asked this question, among others on economics, and the results will not please members of the Socialist International, or for that matter the Senate Finance Committee. Since its founding in 1969, the...

Boys Are In Trouble by: Wendy Cook, June 04, 2007 Since the 33-year-old Women’s Educational Equity Act’s inception, the U. S. Congress has appropriated around $10 million annually for research, curricula development and teaching strategies to promote “gender equity,” according to information from the U.S. Department of Education. But what about the boys, have they been left behind by our nation’s schools? “Boys are in trouble,” said Krista Kafer, visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. “The facts are quite clear; boys trail girls in most indicators of academic excellence such as, school engagement, achievement scores, and graduation rates at...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — High school students nationwide are taking seemingly tougher courses and earning better grades, but their reading skills are not improving through the effort, according to two federal reports released here Thursday that cite grade inflation as a possible explanation. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam commonly known as the nation’s report card, found that the reading skills of 12th graders tested in 2005 were significantly worse than those of students in 1992, when a comparable test was first given, and essentially flat since students previously took the exam in 2002. The test results also...

According to a recent study published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), public school students are outperforming their private school counterparts in fourth grade mathematics and have equaled “private school students in fourth grade reading and eighth grade math.” However, as Shanea Watkins, Policy Analyst in Empirical Studies in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation, explains, these results require greater scrutiny. Some commentators that reference the NCES report believe the study points to a causal relationship—that attending a public school will cause higher academic achievement in math. However, the study focuses on data provided by...