American students are regressing in math and reading, according to data released Wednesday on the Nation’s Report Card.
In math, scores in 2015 are lower in both fourth and eighth grade than they were in 2013, the last time the test was administered. Despite earlier gains, math scores are back where they were when President Obama took office in 2009. Only four out of 10 fourth graders are proficient or better in math, same as in 2009. Among eighth graders, only three in 10 are proficient or better, same as in 2009.
In reading, 2015 scores are significantly lower for eighth graders, while the change in scores for fourth graders was negligible. For both grades, scores are only slightly higher than they were in 2009. Only one in three students are proficient or better in reading in both the fourth and eighth grades, slightly better than in 2009.
Despite the stagnation, scores for both math and reading are better than they were in the early 1990s when the first test for the Nation’s Report Card was given. The average math score is seven percent better in eighth grade and 13 percent better in fourth grade. Average reading scores have improved by only 2 and 3 percent for eighth and fourth graders.
“We have a long way to go with our kids across the country,” Chris Minnich, the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said at a release event in Washington, D.C. “Clearly these results show we’re not quite there yet,” Minnich said about getting students ready for college.
Still, Minnich is hopeful that progress will come soon. “One year does not make a trend.” He later added that we should still expect student scores to improve every year.
New data about 21 large, urban school districts was also released. In reading, fourth grade students do best in Hillsborough County Public Schools, serving Tampa, Fla., where 40 percent of students are proficient or better. Eighth grade students do best in reading in Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas.
Math students do best in Charlotte, where over half of fourth graders are proficient or better, and nearly 40 percent of eighth graders.
Detroit came in last in both math and reading, in both fourth and eighth grade, with roughly one in 20 students proficient or better.
The Nation’s Report Card is technically known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and administered by the National Assessment Governing Board. Almost 300,000 students each in the fourth and eighth grades took the math and reading assessments earlier this year. National data include students in private schools, while local data include only public school districts.
The test is widely viewed as the gold standard for measuring the nation’s educational progress.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
