Nation’s report card: No gains for 12th-graders

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

In an abysmal showing, only about one-quarter of U.S. high-school seniors performed solidly in math in a major assessment known as the nation’s report card, reinforcing concerns that large numbers of students are unprepared for either college or the workplace.

In reading, almost 4 in 10 students reached the “proficient” level or higher.

In both subjects on the 2013 exam, there was little change from 2009, when the National Assessment of Educational Progress was last given to 12th-graders. The results, released Wednesday, come from a representative sample of 92,000 public and private school students.

The stagnation is “unacceptable,” said David Driscoll, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for the exam.

The results follow the just-released and seemingly more encouraging research that U.S. high- school graduation rates in 2012 reached 80 percent, a record.

John Easton, acting commissioner of the Education’s Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, said one possible reason was that lower-performing students who in the past would have dropped out remained in the sampling of students who took the exam.

In reading, the 38 percent share of students performing at or above proficient was lower than when the assessment was first given in 1992, when it was 40 percent. Scores have remained similar since 1994.

Past comparisons in math date to 2005. Scores increased from 2005 to 2009.

Even as 12th-grade scores have stagnated, fourth- and eighth-grade students have made slow but steady progress on the exam since the early 1990s; most progress has come in math.

Michael Petrilli, executive vice president at the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said it’s unclear why younger students are doing better, but not high-school seniors.