US 'report card' on reading: 8th-graders gain, 4th-graders don't
For the first time since 2003, America鈥檚 fourth-graders failed to make any improvements in reading, according to a report released Wednesday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the "nation鈥檚 report card."
For most of the past decade, elementary school students have made steady progress on reading, math, and other subjects, while eighth-graders and high-schoolers have shown more mixed performance. Between 2007 and 2009, it was the eighth-graders who made some slight gains, while fourth-grade scores were virtually unchanged.
Most achievement gaps 鈥� between whites and blacks, whites and Hispanics, boys and girls, public school and private school students, and low-income students and their middle- or upper-income peers 鈥� also remained unchanged compared with 2007 and with 1992, when NAEP was first administered. The black-white gap for fourth-graders and the male-female gap for eighth-graders have narrowed some since 1992.
Overall, 鈥渨e鈥檝e stopped making gains, we鈥檝e stopped closing gaps ... and the last thing we need right now is an educational recession,鈥� says Amy Wilkins, vice president of Education Trust in Washington, which works to close achievement and opportunity gaps. 鈥淚t鈥檚 quite clear ... that a big part of the way out of our [national economic] troubles is an educated workforce.鈥�
Some achievement gaps narrow in some states
One glimmer of hope in the , Ms. Wilkins says, is that individual states have shown progress in closing gaps. Among Florida fourth-graders, for instance, the black-white gap and the income gap have narrowed. 鈥淚t is absolutely possible to move these kids [educationally].... It鈥檚 a matter of attention to the issue, not the ability of the students,鈥� she says.
In the national snapshot of eighth-grade reading, 32 percent reached 鈥減roficient鈥� (the target for the grade level) or higher in 2009. Among fourth-graders, a third scored at least proficient, while 67 percent reached the 鈥渂asic鈥� level.
While it鈥檚 still too soon to determine a clear long-term trend, the results in many ways echo the NAEP math results this past fall, which showed a plateau for fourth-graders and a slight rise for eighth-graders. A number of education experts suggest this is a sign that the low-hanging fruit -- the easiest gains to be made in education reform 鈥� has already been plucked.
鈥淚t鈥檚 sad to me that the [fourth-grade] scores didn鈥檛 change at all,鈥� says Kim Kozbial-Hess, a fourth-grade teacher from Ohio and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board. 鈥淚t makes me wonder what鈥檚 going on in the classroom, and what we can do to improve it.鈥�
What's up with boys?
The persistent reading gap for boys, coupled with girls鈥� higher rates of high school and college graduation, raises concerns that 鈥渟omething is happening with boys that鈥檚 holding them back in school,鈥� says Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a research group in Washington that recently released a .
Ms. Kozbial-Hess encourages teachers to use tools on the NAEP website to match their classroom strategies with NAEP frameworks. Fourth-graders, for instance, are expected to recognize information in a reading passage that explains a character鈥檚 behavior. Eighth-graders are asked to explain aspects of a narrative poem and to interpret an author鈥檚 point in a persuasive essay.
The 2009 test challenged students with more high-quality literature and a broader range of texts 鈥� including poetry for fourth-graders. The new framework better measures skills such as evaluating informational texts.
鈥淭hese are the things that will bring about that critical thinking that we need for our kids,鈥� Kozbial-Hess says.
