The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was updated yesterday with some information on how student performance in reading and math has changed over time. According to the Eduwonk, there are mixed results as far as the eye can see. But I think we can be a little more definitive than that.
Joanne Jacobs is correct that the big takeaway is that students are doing slightly better in 4th grade and 8th grade, but by the time they reach the end of the K-12 system nothing has changed in 35 years. So the longer you’re in the system, the less improvement there is. From a big-picture view, this isn’t very comforting at all.
Still, it’s important to note that real but modest gains have been made in reading and math (especially math) among 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds. Gaps between white and black students are shrinking in many areas, though we’d certainly like to see it happening more quickly.
At Flypaper, Andy Smarick attributes the good news from NAEP to increased focus from accountability programs on the elementary and middle school level. Is he right? Difficult to say, but the hypothesis is compelling and makes some intuitive sense.
Yet Andrew Coulson at the CATO Institute makes a powerful point, too: For the sums of money we’re spending now — which are double what was spent per pupil in 1970 — we’re getting a lousy return. Students and parents, the consumers of education, deserve more than they’re currently getting in the way of choice, accountability, and transparency. Especially high school students.
This observation sums it up pretty well:
“The results at ages 9 and 13 are encouraging, but the lack of improvement by high school students provides little comfort,” stated Darvin M. Winick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, in a news release.
But then again, I suppose it’s news like this that reminds us all why we go headlong into the fray on behalf of education reform.
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