Younger Students Show Gains in Math and Reading

NYT reports America's elementary school students made solid gains in both reading and math in the first years of this decade, while middle school students made less progress and older teenagers hardly any, according to test results issued today that are considered the best measure of the nation's long-term education trends.

No Child Left Behind certainly has been shown to work for children that entered the system after GWB made it to the White House, and this explains why his current initiatives for NCLB are focused on High School Students

Nine-year-old minority students made the most gains on the test, administered by the United States Department of Education. In particular, young black students significantly narrowed the historic gap between their math and reading scores and those of higher-achieving whites, who also made significant 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.

See This page for the answer

The math and reading test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Long Term Trends, has been given to a representative national sample of 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students every few years since the early 1970's, virtually without modification, and social scientists study it carefully. The results announced today were from a test given to 28,000 public and private school students in all 50 states during fall 2003 and spring 2004. The test had not been administered since 1999. Nine year old students born in the mid-1990's, on average, earned the highest scores in three decades, in both subjects. In the reading test, the average score of 9-year-old black students increased by 14 points on a 500-point scale, to 200 in 2004 from 186 in 1999. Reading scores of 9-year-old white students increased by 5 points, to 226 in 2004 from 221 in 1999. As a result, the black-white achievement gap for 9-year-old students narrowed to 26 points from 35 points over those five years. In 1971, the gap was 44 points.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings attributed the gains among elementary students to President Bush's school reform law, No Child Left Behind. Sounding jubilant, she also credited the nation's teachers, principals and state and national policymakers, including Democrats who have supported the federal law.

Betsy Newmark blogged Gee, could it be that high-stakes testing is forcing schools to make sure that kids learn what they should? And it is not surprising that the older children show little progress. First of all, they have a whole lot more to make up for in order to catch up. And once they kids get to high school, many are left to sink or swim rather than get the intensive remedial reading and math work that they need.

Wind Rider blogged Not that some won't try, but it'll be pretty hard to sidetrack the potential for a cause and effect conclusion on this one - kids that have been in the system only since Bush started pushing accountability for education results seem to be actually performing better on tests. Hmm...best scores since the 70's, eh? Yep, that seems to track with the takeover of new age hairbrained teaching schemes, that seemed to care less about making sure kids actually mastered the skills of reading and basic math, and more about catering to the desire to have them feel ok with themselves. In spite of the fact they were growing up ignorant of very basic tools to help them succeed in life. It's a lot better to have them actually earn something to feel good about, than to teach them how to accept ignorance and mediocrity and 'don't worry, be happy'.

Ann Althouse blogged Despite Spellings' efforts at sharing the credit, I expect to hear lots of people going out of their way to discredit No Child Left Behind.