Math tests: Fourth-grader progress stalls

New math scores show fourth-graders made no gains since 2007, the first time in two decades they have failed to improve. Eighth-graders advanced for yet another year.

Education officials called the results troubling, even though it is impossible to know from one test whether progress over the long term has stalled.

"We're clearly not requiring enough of our math teachers," said David Driscoll, chairman of the board that oversees the tests and a former education commissioner in Massachusetts.

Teachers lack training even in his state, which posted the highest scores in math. When Massachusetts beefed up the math portion of the elementary teacher test in 2007, 55 percent of teachers failed, he said.

And yet teachers are crucial to learning. Driscoll noted that eighth graders whose teachers majored in math scored 9 points higher than other kids on this year's test.

The results are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, a series of federally funded achievement tests often referred to as the nation's report card.

Students are tested in nine subjects, but they are tested most often in math and reading; the next reading scores should be released next year. Generally, kids have been making more progress in math than in reading.

This year, on a 500-point scale, fourth-graders on average scored 240 in math, unchanged from two years ago. Eighth-graders on average scored 283, up from 281 two years ago.

The scores put 39 percent of fourth-graders and 34 percent of eighth-graders at the proficient level, meaning they show the knowledge and skills they should have at that grade.

That, in turn, means that millions of kids are a long way off from meeting the goal of the No Child Left Behind law championed by George W. Bush, which is that every student can read and do math at their grade level by 2014.

Congress hopes to rewrite the law next year.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the results mean "the status quo isn't good enough."

"These NAEP results are a call to action for reforms that will prepare our students to compete in the global economy," Duncan said.

Tom Loveless, an education expert at the Brookings Institution think tank, said results really weren't much different from 2007. It will take another four to six years to see if fourth-grade progress has truly stalled, he said.

"Each of these is kind of like a public opinion poll; it's an estimate," Loveless said. "I think people rush to take each release of test scores far too seriously and try to explain every little wiggle in the data."

Loveless said it is impossible to explain exactly why fourth-grade scores did not budge. "Scientifically, you cannot explain in education why a phenomenon did not happen," he said.

According to the results:

- Just four states and the District of Columbia managed to show improvement in both fourth and eighth grades. The states are Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

- Three states saw improvement in fourth grade only; they are Colorado, Kentucky and Maryland. Ten states saw improvement in eighth grade only; they are Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.

- In four states, scores actually dropped among fourth-graders; they are Delaware, Indiana, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In addition, there was no progress from 2007 to 2009 in closing the gap between minority and white students in either grade, though the gap has narrowed somewhat since the 1990s. Black and Hispanic students did make gains at eighth grade, but the gap persisted because white students improved, too.

Experts say this divide, considered one of the toughest challenges in education, is driven by deeply rooted factors. More minority children live in poverty, which is linked to an array of problems that interfere with learning.

Another reason the gap has persisted is demographics - white children made up about 75 percent of students tested in the 1990s but today make up less than 60 percent.

Private school students continue to outperform those in public schools, according to the scores. Private school math scores were 7 points better in fourth grade and 14 points better in eighth grade.

Internationally, U.S. fourth- and eighth-graders have kept improving in math and have gained on some of their toughest competitors. But the most recent tests were done in 2007 and won't be administered again until 2011.

This year's NAEP math tests were given to 168,800 fourth-graders and 161,700 eighth-graders in public and private schools in every state.

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On the Web:

National Assessment of Educational Progress: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/