The Education Trust
January 2005
In November 2004, the Education Trust showed that many states had increased the average test scores of elementary school students while also narrowing achievement gaps (click here). EdTrust has now expanded this analysis to include middle and high schools, where the news is less encouraging, especially in the high school years. Twenty-four of 28 states improved in middle school math and 16 of 27 in middle school reading, compared with 14 of 21 states in high school math and just 11 of 20 in high school reading. (We hear an echo of the finding from our recent State of State English Standards 2005 that high school literature standards across the country are woeful.) Both middle and high schools are doing a worse job in closing achievement gaps than elementary schools. Still, in most of the cases analyzed (e.g., reading and math, for middle and high school, across each of the subgroups), more states narrowed than widened their achievement gaps. The November report concluded that elementary schools still have much progress to make, and overall this report indicates that middle and, especially, high schools have even further to travel. The reasons may be numerous (learn more here), but the data may add momentum to the Bush proposal to expand NCLB-style results-based accountability to the high school level. You can access this short report online here.
