First, the good news. Maybe. Maryland State Assessment scores steadily improve. The most recent results, released last week, show major improvements in the percentage of students deemed “proficient” or better in reading and math across grade levels in the state.
The percent of students scoring proficient or better in reading in third grade in 2007 rose to 80.5 percent from 58.2 in 2005. Those scoring proficient in math in fifth grade rose 26.4 percentage points in two years to 78.3 percent. The results span all grade levels and ethnicity.
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“These gratifying scores are the result of hard work by Maryland students, teachers and administrators,” State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick said in a statement last week. “Everyone can take pride in these scores.”
Not so fast.
A week earlier the National Center for Education Statistics released a report outlining student performance throughout the country based on The National Assessment of Educational Progress ? also known as The Nation?s Report Card.
Maryland?s performance showed no such gains from previous years. It also rates the percentage of students achieving proficiency in reading and math well below half of the percentage the state rates at that level. Scores place Maryland at the national average across the board and have for years. So where?s the progress?
Is this what Thornton ? the 2002 education law pumping an extra $1.3 billion into the public school system over six years ? achieved? Is this what a state with the second-highest median income is capable of?
It?s not as if the national tests ask students for obscure knowledge. They have been around since 1969, so the contents are no surprise to state educators.
Department of Education spokesman Bill Reinhard said, “Maryland?s standards are high.”
He also said the national results “haven?t entered into our thinking one way or another.” They should.
They may not matter for achieving “Adequate Yearly Progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires states to test students and measure schools and school districts based on state standards. But as a measure of absolute knowledge they reveal no student improvement. That hardly reflects well on the state?s education system ? especially since not all students take NAEP ? nor on the extra funding so hyped as the foundation for recent statewide progress.
As U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, the “report finds that many state?s assessment standards do not measure up to the rigorous standards of The Nation?s Report Card.”
We?d like the Department of Education to show residents how the state and national standards differ and why those the state follows are the most “rigorous.” If they are not, state tests must be revised upward, even if it means students and schools achieve proficiency at a slower pace. No one benefits from a false sense of accomplishment. Especially the students who will soon seek jobs in Maryland and the employers who hire them.
