The president of the national teachers’ union said 12th-grade math and reading performance was paltry compared with the higher scores of the 1990s.
The American Federation of Teachers’ Randi Weingarten said the 2009 scores “don’t show enough growth since the 1990s. We must take immediate steps to prepare all children, regardless of ZIP code, to succeed in college, work and life.”
A report from the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that average reading scores on standardized tests had increased since 2005, but were still lower than 1992 numbers. Math scores increased slightly since 2005, when a new framework for the exam was introduced, making comparisons to previous years inaccurate.
Significant achievement gaps among racial groups also showed up in both subjects, with even the gains shared unevenly: White and Asian students’ reading scores went up from 2005, but reading scores did not change significantly for black students, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native students, or female students. Students at suburban high schools scored higher than those at urban or rural schools in both subjects.
Read Weingarten’s full statement below:
The National Assessment of Educational Progress scores for high school seniors don’t show enough growth since the 1990s. We must take immediate steps to prepare all children, regardless of ZIP code, to succeed in college, work and life. Schools need a systemic, comprehensive approach to improving what’s being taught inside the classroom and to countering factors outside the classroom, like poverty, that affect student performance. The Common Core State Standards, if implemented well and used to build a strong reading and math curriculum, could serve as an important step to take our students to a higher level. Schools also need to provide teachers with the tools, resources, support, and good teaching and learning conditions to do their jobs. Factors outside the classroom affect student growth, as shown clearly by the achievement gap among the 11 states that volunteered to participate in the NAEP study. By providing wraparound tutoring and social services for disadvantaged students and their families, we can begin to level the playing field to close the achievement gap among the haves and the have-nots.
