Michael Casserly, Council of the Great City Schools
March 2004
This is the fourth report by the Council for the Great City Schools on student achievement in urban schools, and the first to include comparison data from two years of NCLB implementation. According to Casserly, executive director of the CGCS and the study's primary author, though the U.S. doesn't have an assessment system that allows us to answer some of the most pressing urban education reform questions - e.g., are city schools improving academically and closing the achievement gap? - "the data from this report indicate that answers are emerging and that urban education may be establishing a beachhead on the rocky shoals of school reform." Specifically, the data suggest that, between 2002 and 2003, the percentage of urban 4th graders reading at or above "proficient" levels on state tests rose almost five points to 47.8 percent. In math over half (51 percent) scored at or above "proficient," a 6.8 percent increase. In other good news, nearly three quarters (73 percent) of 4th grade classes in urban districts narrowed the reading gap between black and white 4th graders and over half (53 percent) of 8th grade classes and 38.9 percent of 10th grade classes narrowed the gap. Still, Casserly warns that the findings in this study "are preliminary and leavened with caution. Some data look better than others. Progress in math is different from that in reading. Trend lines are not the same from one city to another. Not all grades have improved at the same rates. Not all gaps are closing. But the data indicate progress." This report is chock full of interesting data; find it at http://www.cgcs.org/reports/beat_the_oddsIV.html.
"Test scores in large urban school districts make big strides," by Greg Toppo, USA Today, March 21, 2004
"Students progress credited to reform," by George Archibald, Washington Times, March 24, 2004
