Nation's students continue to need improvement

WASHINGTON – Some progress. Still needs improvement.

The nation’s report card on math and reading shows fourth- and eighth-graders scoring their best ever in math and eighth-graders making some progress in reading. But the results released Tuesday are a stark reminder of just how far the nation’s school kids are from achieving the No Child Left Behind law’s goal that every child in America be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Just a little more than one-third of the students were proficient or higher in reading. In math, 40 percent of the fourth-graders and 35 percent of the eighth-graders had reached that level.

The figures were from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

“The modest increases in NAEP scores are reason for concern as much as optimism,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “It’s clear that achievement is not accelerating fast enough for our nation’s children to compete in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.”

There were few noticeable changes in the achievement gap between white and black students from 2009. While the gap is smaller than in the early 1990s, the new test results reflect a 25-point difference between white and black fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and fourth-graders in math.

However, Hispanic students in eighth grade made some small strides to narrow the gap with white students in both math and reading. In reading, the gap was 22 points in 2011 compared to 26 in 1992 and 24 in 2009.

The reading test asked students to read passages and recall details or interpret them. In math, students were asked to answer questions about topics such as geometry, algebra and number properties and measurement.

The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics administers the test. On a 500-point scale, both fourth- and eighth-graders scored on average one point higher in math in 2011 than in 2009 and more than 20 points higher than in 1990, when students were first tested in math. In reading, the score for fourth-graders was unchanged from two years ago and four points higher than in 1992, when that test was first administered. Eighth-graders in reading scored on average one point higher in 2011 than in 2009 and five points higher than in 1992.

Among the states:

 • Hawaii was the only state in which fourth- and eighth-grade students improved from 2009 to 2011 in both reading and math.

 • New Mexico, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia showed gains in math among both fourth- and eighth-graders over the same period.

 • Maryland’s fourth- and eighth-graders showed improvements in reading.

 • New York was the only state to score lower in math among fourth-graders in 2011, compared to 2009.

 • Missouri was the only state where eighth-graders posted a lower score in math from two years earlier.

 • Missouri and South Dakota had lower scores among fourth-graders in reading from 2009 to 2011.

Tom Loveless, an education expert and senior policy analyst at the Brookings Institution, said any gains from 2009 to 2011 were minuscule and wouldn’t even be noticed “in the real world.”

“Students have had a lot harder time making the gains in reading than they have in math,” Loveless said.

There was no clear reason why.