US 12th graders showed no improvement in math or reading in federal test scores released on May 7, based on a comparison of 2009 and 2013 scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, the Wall Street Journal reports.
About 38 percent of high school seniors scored proficient or higher in reading, while about 26 percent did so in math. The proficiency numbers match the 2009 results. Furthermore, a majority of students received marks of below basic or basic for both subjects in both years.
“This report is similar to previous reports in that there is nothing stellar about it,” the Journal quoted Cornelia Orr, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, as saying. The board was created by Congress in 1988 to set and measure national benchmarks for student performance. “Too few students are achieving at a level to make our country competitive at an international level.”
Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a policy and advocacy nonprofit focused on readying high-school graduates for work or college, said he was disappointed by the non-increase. “We’re in the midst of a very epic change in this country,” the Journal quoted him as saying. “We raised standards and realize that all students need to graduate to be college- or career-ready in some form, but we’re not there yet. We raised the bar but haven’t put in all the steps yet for all our students to be able to clear it.”
Defining “college- or career-ready”
It amazes me that policymakers like Mr Wise haven’t yet figured out the nonsense of the term “college-ready” and of the term “career-ready.” What counts as “ready” for Stanford or for a career in nuclear physics is completely different from what constitutes readiness for Moraine Valley Community College or a job in the hospitality industry. And that is nothing against Moraine Valley or the hospitality industry. But colleges like Moraine and careers in hospitality are just as real as Stanford or nuclear physics. They just don’t cost or net as much money.
Ultimately, learning standards don’t matter all that much, except when we set them low. Then, and only then, do standards play a significant role in student achievement. Rather, the implementation of those standards—through lesson plans, model units, and other elements of the actual curriculum teachers use in their classrooms—is much more important.
I will say this again: Nothing that happens in Washington, state capitals, board rooms, or even in principals’ offices is as important as anything that happens in a classroom. Teachers don’t get much airtime on blogs or in newspapers like the Times or the Journal, but wasting too many inches on policymakers and think tanks gets us nowhere. The focus must be on the classroom, for that is the only place education happens.
Other takes for certain states
Connecticut seniors did better last year than in 2009, the New York Times reported. Maryland did not participate in the pilot 12th-grade test in math and reading, which began in 2005. Illinois did participate, but performance was stagnant for both reading and math in Illinois, according to the official NAEP website.
National average scores from 2013 didn’t change from 2009, although performance has increased since the first 12th-grade test in math (2005). However, performance has declined since the first reading test was administered to seniors in 1992.
Among the 11 volunteer pilot states that participated in both the 2009 and 2013 assessments, four made gains from 2009 in mathematics (Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, and West Virginia) and two made gains in reading (Arkansas and Connecticut).
