NAEP Roundup

There was a predictable and at times even entertaining feeding frenzy how to interpret the newest NAEP scores released last week. Too many links to post them all, but a couple of points worth highlighting/adding:

Still Not Making The Grade: The numbers are still staggering low. Overall in math, 36 percent of fourth-graders could handle challenging material, up from 32 percent in 2003. Among eighth-graders, 30 percent reached at least that "proficient" level, up from 29 percent.

NAEP vs. State Results: Education News and others note that NAEP scores continue to be much lower than those reported on state tests (Gains on State Tests Evaporate). grade, NAEP scores are 5-11 percentage points lower than those reported by six states. For more on this: State Gains Not Echoed In Federal Testing (WashPost) .

Before vs. After NCLB: A handful of news outlets provided pre-and during-NCLB comparisons showing that reading scores were flat and math scores on the rise before NCLB, and reading scores are flat and math scores are still up after NCLB.

Media Hype? A piece in MediaMatters suggests that a couple of major news outlets may have overstated the improvement on NAEP scores: AP, USA Today overstated math scores since No Child Left Behind ....

Thanks to Eric Grodsky for his research and analysis.