Education Law

The eye of the beholder

Yesterday, BoardBuzz reported new NAEP results showing that  U.S. students are continuing to make gains in reading and math. To our admittedly pro-public school mind, this is obviously good news. Yet judging by yesterday’s coverage, NAEP, which is also called ”the nation’s report card,” should more accurately be described as ”the nation’s Rorschach test.”

From the New York Times:

The achievement gap between white and minority students has not narrowed in recent years, despite the focus of the No Child Left Behind law on improving the scores of blacks and Hispanics …

Then the Washington Post says:

Math and reading scores for 9- and 13-year-olds have risen since the 2002 enactment of No Child Left Behind, providing fuel to those who want to renew the federal law and strengthen its reach in high schools.

Shouts FairTest:

NAEP RESULTS PRODUCE MORE EVIDENCE OF NCLB’S FAILURE

A more measured, but still gloomy headline from Education Week observes:

Older Students Less Successful on Math NAEP.

Holy Moly! No wonder Achieve was motivated to pronounce:

NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessments Show Mixed Results

BoardBuzz believes our readers can make their own judgments by looking at The Nation’s Report Card: 2008 Long-Term Trends for themselves. We think that, like us, you’ll find reason to applaud the hard work of our schools, teachers, and school kids.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on April 29, 2009 (boomark / email).