Kids' test scores up and down
Florida fourth-graders make another gain in reading, but eighth-graders show no change, and stand at 42nd in the nation.
By RON MATUS
Published October 20, 2005
Florida fourth-graders have moved to the middle of the pack nationally in reading, while their eighth-grade counterparts are sinking toward the bottom, the latest results from a respected national test show.
The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress test, often called the nation's report card, also shows Florida is among the nation's leaders in narrowing the achievement gap between white and minority students.
The 90-minute test was given this year to 660,000 students in grades 4, 8 and 12 in all 50 states. Reading and math results for fourth- and eighth-graders were released Wednesday.
Nationally, students are making steady gains in math but showing little or no progress in reading.
At the same time, the achievement gap is shrinking, but only barely.
In Florida, the number of fourth-graders reading at or above a basic level increased 2 percent from 2003 - a change experts caution is not statistically significant. Some observers expected better scores, in part because Florida showed more progress during the last round of testing and because this was the first NAEP administered since the state's third-grade retention policy went into effect.
"The fact that it did not go down . . . says to me we're still moving in the right direction," said Cornelia Orr, the testing director at the Florida Department of Education.
Over time, Florida fourth-graders have made some of the biggest gains in the nation.
Since 1998 - the year Gov. Jeb Bush was elected - the number of fourth-graders reading at a basic level or above has jumped from 53 to 65 percent, pushing the state this year from 33rd to 26th nationally. Only Delaware fourth-graders have shown more progress.
Meanwhile, Florida eighth-graders are moving in the opposite direction. Their reading scores have remained stagnant since 1998, with the latest results putting them 42nd in the nation.
Education Commissioner John Winn said he was "tremendously encouraged" by Florida's fourth-grade results, but said the eighth-grade scores point up the need for more focus on middle school.
"There is more work to be done," he said.
Nationally, the percentage of fourth-graders reading at a basic level or above was unchanged from 2003, while the percentage of eighth-graders performing at that level was down 1 point. In math, fourth-graders jumped 3 points, while eighth-graders moved up 1.
The latest scores highlight an increasingly fierce debate over the No Child Left Behind Act, the sweeping 2002 federal law that has forced states to focus more on minority students.
Since 1998, black fourth-graders reading at a basic level have gained 1 percentage point on their white peers, while Hispanic fourth-graders have gained 2. At that rate, it will be decades before white and minority students - now separated by more than 30 percentage points - are on par.
Any narrowing of the gap "shouldn't be minimized," said Diane Piche, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights. But "we need to have a much more accelerated pace of improvement."
At the White House, President Bush called the latest results encouraging, while U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said she was "pleased but not satisfied."
Spellings noted that the small gains since 2003 - when the last NAEP test was given - were made despite an increasingly diverse student body, with more students in poverty and more speaking English as a second language. She credited No Child, which mandates that schools show progress with minority groups or face federal sanctions.
"It's significant while we're making progress, it's with students who require extra intervention and attention," Spellings said.
Critics saw it differently. Some noted that fourth-grade reading scores rose faster in the two years before No Child than it has since.
"The drill and kill curriculum . . . undermines rather than improves the quality of education," said Monty Neill, co-director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.
Some observers found the reading scores especially troubling.
Since 1992, there has been little change in the percentage of fourth-graders reading at a basic level or above, despite the emergence of the accountability movement, which has put a premium on high-stakes testing and shunned big infusions of money into public schools.
A "basic" rating on NAEP means the student has only partly mastered fundamental skills. The percentage of fourth-graders reading at a proficient level is much smaller.
Meanwhile, since 1990, the percent of fourth-graders scoring at basic or above in math has soared from 50 to 80.
In Florida, fourth-graders are up 6 points this year. Eighth-graders are up 3.
"As a former English teacher, I'm distressed," said John M. Stevens, a member of the bipartisan National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the NAEP. "Our educational system is not making the kinds of progress in literacy" that it's making in math.
Some experts say it is too early to blame - or credit - either No Child or the accountability movement.
"We have to collect more information and let a little more time pass," said Jay Greene, director of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas.
In Florida, NAEP numbers tell a different story, especially on the achievement gap.
Among fourth-graders, Florida is narrowing the gap, with all racial groups making progress. From 2003 to 2005, only three other states - New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina - narrowed the reading gap between both whites and blacks and whites and Hispanics.
The gap also is narrowing among Florida eighth-graders, but with a twist: Since 1998, the percent of black and Hispanic students reading at a basic level is up 3 points and 1 point, respectively. But the percent of white students is down 3 points.
The same thing is happening in a handful of other states, including Texas and California.
Florida education officials said they had no explanation.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com