John Wirt et al., National Center for Education Statistics
2003
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has issued the latest in its annual series known as "The Condition of Education." You may not be surprised to learn that it finds "a mixed picture." The good news: American fourth graders are outperforming counterparts from a number of industrialized nations on reading tests. The percentage of high school students taking advanced courses in English is rising. Fourth and eighth graders show measurable gains in math. The worrying news: Fifteen-year-olds are merely average in reading compared to their counterparts in other industrial lands. Math scores for 12th graders, after small gains in the 1990s, have actually declined, with only 17 percent scoring at or above "proficient." Appallingly, a mere 10 percent of 12th graders are at or above proficiency in history. And the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their peers persists. To get the Commissioner's Statement summarizing the report, go to http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003067_CommState.pdf. For the full, 327-page, bells-and-whistles version, go to http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003067.pdf.