Monday, April 9, 2001
Reading test scores released last week by the U.S. Department of Education contained a double dose of bad news.
First, more than two-thirds of the nation's fourth-graders can't read proficiently. During the eight years that the tests have been given, there's been no substantial improvement.
Second, the one trend that seems to be emerging is that the gap between the best and worst young readers is widening.
The numbers: The 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed the average score for fourth-graders in a 500-point test was 217, the same as in 1998 and 1992.
The scores show that 32 percent of fourth-graders were proficient or better in reading, which is slightly better that 1992, when 29 percent were proficient.
But while students in the top 10 percent increased their average scores a bit -- from 261 to 264 -- the average scores of readers in the bottom 10 percent dropped from 170 to 163.
It's literacy's equivalent of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And it is simply intolerable.
No society that espouses equal opportunity can kid itself about the realities of opportunity when 68 percent of its 9 and 10 year olds are not reading up to par. That is a critical age for young people. If they cannot read by then, the likelihood of their learning in later grades across all subject areas is dismal.
The frustrating aspect of these depressing test numbers is that they come in spite of a massive effort to improve the scores.
As U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige put it, "After spending $125 billion ... over 25 years, we have virtually nothing to show for it." Paige was referring to the federal government's leading school program for poor children known as Title I.
Apologists: There are those who will see these test results and scoff. The tests are unfair, they'll say. Or the tests are skewed in some way. Or high-stakes tests put too much pressure on children.
No doubt some children don't test well. And within any test there are going to be flaws. But those are exceptions that could at best account for only a small percentage of the failures exposed by the national assessment effort.
The level of failure seen in these tests is massive, and the underlying message that this nation is creating two classes of children -- the literary haves and the have-nots -- should be a wake-up call to everyone.
Whatever most of our schools are doing isn't working. They must find something that does.