Report: U.S. students have made gains

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kids are making strides in reading and math, though progress in math seems stalled among high school students, according to a federal report that tracked test scores going back to the 1970s.

The scores come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the benchmark of how students perform across the country. The report issued Tuesday measured children’s scores in 2008 against long-term trends.

It offered a glimmer of hope for high school kids. Their reading scores improved since 2004, the last time results were issued. In fact, every age group — 9, 13 and 17 — made gains over 2004.

In math, scores improved for younger children since 2004, but scores for 17-year-olds remained flat.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he was pleased but not satisfied with the results.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” he said in a brief interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.

“Obviously, we have a lot of hard work ahead. But it’s really good to see the improvement,” Duncan said. “I’m proud of how hard our kids are working. I’m proud of how hard our teachers are working.”

Results were in line with long-term trends, said Darvin Winick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, the bipartisan panel that oversees the test.

Over time, schools have done rather well with elementary school kids, better with middle-school kids and stalled with high school kids, Winick said. The report said 17-year-olds did no better at reading and math in 2008 than they did in the early 1970s.

The biggest gains came from low-achieving students. That is probably not an accident — the federal No Child Left Behind law and similar state laws have focused on improving the performance of minority and poor children, who lag behind their white classmates on standardized tests.

“The big pressure for the last six, eight years in this country has been on bringing the lower-performing students up,” Winick said in an interview. “And what this long-term trend says is, generally, that’s what’s happening.”

The overall gains in the report were modest, but one Education Department official pointed out that shifting demographics may obscure more significant progress among minority groups.

White children made up 80 percent of the 9-year-olds tested in the 1970s; today, they are 56 percent of those tested. Hispanic children were only 5 percent of the 9-year-olds assessed in the 1970s; today, they are 20 percent of those tested. The percentage of black students tested rose slightly, from 14 percent to 16 percent since the 1970s.

“You lose the fact that much more exciting things are happening in racial and ethnic groups,” said Stuart Kerachsky, who, as acting commissioner of the department’s National Center for Education Statistics, carries out the test.

Among other findings, the report found:

U Average reading scores were 12 points higher than in the early 1970s for 9-year-olds, 4 points higher for 13-year-olds and no different for 17-year-olds.

U Average math scores were 24 points higher than in the early 1970s for 9-year-olds, 15 points higher for 13-year-olds and no different for 17-year-olds.