Minn. 4th-Grade Reading Scores Drop in ‘Nation’s Report Card’

Reacting to the scores, Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said one year’s worth of data shouldn’t send the nation’s schools and teachers off in a different direction. That’s slightly higher than the national average of 33 percent. Average scores have shown significant improvement since 2000 by fourth-graders and on the eighth-grade math test, while overall progress in reading by eighth-graders has languished.

The report also found a continuing achievement gap between white and black students.

The assessment is given every two years to a sample of students in fourth and eighth grade across the country.

America’s schoolchildren are also increasingly poor.

“I’d like to caution everyone to be careful against drawing conclusions with so many variables”, said Duncan, whose agency has been supportive of the new standards, which are now undergoing revisions in Arkansas. Results show test scores across the nation, including in Kansas, are lower than in 2013. “We are not going to suggest any cause and effect at all, but there are multiple ways to look at this”. For eight-grade math students, 43 percent of white students were at or above proficiency levels; just 13 percent of black students were.

EIGHTH-GRADE MATH: Maryland’s score went down from 287 in 2013 to 283 in 2015. Massachusetts and Minnesota were the only two states to get statistically higher fourth-grade math scores than Virginia.

In reading, the Cleveland public schools were next to last among the large urban school districts with only 11 percent scoring proficient or better. Fourth-grade reading scores were up a point, but reading scores in eighth grade dropped three.

Polikoff notes that more detailed student-level data from these tests will be released in the coming months.

Montana students still scored above national averages in each category.

The results come five years after Tennessee legislators changed education policies to make the state eligible for federal Race to the Top funds. For example, if districts move a concept previously taught in third grade to fifth grade, then a corresponding trough in fourth grade performance might be observed.

During a call with reporters on Tuesday, Haslam and Education Commissioner Candice McQueen bristled at the characterization of this year’s scores as flat and argued that the new scores show that Tennessee’s academic ascendancy continues.

Education officials admit they’re disappointed and a little surprised. “Now we are leading the way by administering the most honest assessments in the country, reducing testing to less than 1 percent of classroom time, introducing computerized testing and creating new opportunities for parents and teachers to give their feedback”. College students do not even know they have been chosen to take them till shortly earlier than they’re referred to as out of sophistication to take a seat for the exams.