The Education Trust
October 2004
This short report presents achievement data from 24 states in order to track progress toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency in math and reading, as NCLB expects states to achieve by 2014. The title sums it up: scores are moving in the right direction, but not quickly enough. Since 2002, math scores have risen in 23 of the 24 states with three years of data. In reading, 15 of 23 improved. And the achievement gaps, both for minorities and for poor students, narrowed in most states. Florida showed the greatest gains in both math and reading, while California, Delaware, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia also demonstrated noteworthy improvements in both subjects. The report covers only the elementary years (typically fourth grade scores), so it only tells part of the story. Future EdTrust studies will report on middle and high school scores. And like many others, this report presents only one aspect of the data: the percentage of "proficient" and "advanced" students. Doing so ignores overall averages, which could be slipping even while the percentage of students classified as proficient is increasing - if, for example, teachers focus on helping students closest to proficiency clear that hurdle while the scores falter at the bottom (or top) of the class. This potential problem will become increasingly important over time, because in order to continue making AYP, even the worst students will eventually need to make it over that hump. Only by tracking that group's scores now will we know how far we really have to go. Still, this report offers good news, important data, and a welcome counter to recent claims that achievement levels are falling (read more here). You can access a summary and the full report online here.
