- No Plan to Reschedule D.C. College Fair
- New NAEP Scores Not Good, but Not Bad Either
- U.S. Students Make Gains in Math but Stall in Reading
- Students Show Growth in Math on National Test
- U.S. Students’ Scores Go Up, but Racial Gaps Persist
- Area Schools Gain on Federal Tests
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Upcoming FOCUS Workshop
No Plan to Reschedule D.C. College Fair
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
November 1, 2011
High school seniors who were shut out of the D.C. National College Fair when it was cut short by fighting last month will get another chance to meet college and university representatives.
But they’ll have to go to Baltimore to do it.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), which co-sponsored the event with OSSE, said it has no plans to re-schedule the D.C. fair, which was marred by fighting at the Convention Center on Oct. 18. Officials ended the morning session early and cancelled the evening program, depriving an estimated 2,000 students of the chance to speak with school officials and get advice on matters such as financial aid.
Instead, said NACAC communications director Shanda Ivory, the organization has contacted D.C. high school counselors and asked them to encourage students to attend the evening session of its Baltimore National College Fair next Monday, Nov. 7, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Baltimore Convention Center.
OSSE was not pleased with the decision by Events DC, which operates the D.C.Convention Center to pull the plug on the evening session. There were no arrests or injuries reported by police. OSSE spokesman Marc Caposino described the cancellation as “an overreaction” and “an enormous disservice to kids and parents.”
Chinyere Hubbard, vice president for communications and marketing for the Events DC, pushed back on reports that it cancelled the evening segment because of a noise complaint from LeadingAge, a senior citizens group also using the center that day. Hubbard said it was Events DC alone that made the decision, solely on the basis of safety and concerns that students who were fighting earlier in the day might return.
“It was strictly a safety issue,” Hubbard said.
New NAEP Scores Not Good, but Not Bad Either
The Washington Post
By Jay Mathews
November 1, 2011
Kevin Carey, in his post for the Education Sector’s The Quick and the Ed blog, stakes out middle ground on the new National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results. I think he gets the mixed, underwhelming results just about right.
He notes the importance of the long-term fourth grade math trend—from 50 percent failing to score even Basic in 1990 to only 18 percent at that distressing level in the latest results. Then he says what middle-of-the-roaders like me feel about where we are:
“First, these scores certainly contradict the more apocalyptic language out there, that standards and tests have ruined American public education, driven the best teachers out of the classroom, etc., etc. There’s simply no evidence here to support that. At the same time, it’s abundantly clear that [the No Child Left Behind law] did not create an inflection point of accelerating improvement. That said, we should never take improvement for granted. Helping more students learn isn’t like rolling a ball along a flat surface, where the key is to get momentum going that then mostly sustains itself. It’s a lot more like climbing a mountain, where every increase in elevation is hard-won.”
U.S. Students Make Gains in Math but Stall in Reading
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton
November 1, 2011
Public school students across the United States posted record scores in math this year but their progress stalled in reading, according to results of nationwide testing released Tuesday.
In math, 40 percent of fourth-graders and 35 percent of eighth-graders scored at a level that was proficient or advanced, higher than at any time since National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) testing began 20 years ago.
In reading, 34 percent of fourth-graders and eighth-graders scored at a level that was proficient or advanced. That performance was unchanged for fourth-graders since the test was last given in 2009 but was slightly better for eighth-graders.
The tests, often referred to as the nation’s report card, also showed minimal progress in narrowing the achievement gap between white students and their black and Latino counterparts, despite nearly 10 years of federal law designed to close that margin.
“The modest increases in NAEP scores are reason for concern as much as optimism,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. “While student achievement is up since 2009 in both grades in mathematics and in eighth-grade reading, it’s clear that achievement is not accelerating fast enough for our nation’s children to compete in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.”
The standardized math and reading tests, administered by the U.S. Education Department, were given this year to a representative national sample of about 422,000 fourth-graders and 343,000 eighth-graders.
The tests have been given every two years since the early 1990s and offer educators, parents and policymakers a sense of how the nation’s students are progressing over time.
Locally, students in the District performed better in math in grades 4 and 8 compared with the school system’s average scores in 2009 and 1992.
But District students still lagged behind the national average in both grades. On the 500-point scale used in the math assessment, D.C. fourth-graders averaged 222, compared with a national average of 240. District eighth-graders averaged 260, lower than the 283 average score for students across the country.
District scores reflected both traditional and public charter students.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said she was hesitant to read much into the scores until she sees more detailed data that will be released next month. But she said Tuesday’s results were consistent with the annual tests administered by the school system, which have shown growth in secondary math and flat or declining scores in reading.
“This continues to bear out where we need to do the most work,” she said, adding that it validates the decision to make literacy the first piece of a planned overhaul of the District’s academic plan. The strategy calls for more teacher training in reading instruction and an effort to embed literacy skills in all subjects in elementary and middle schools.
Still, the NAEP scores show the District was among just four places — including Hawaii, New Mexico and Rhode Island — that saw increases in math in both grades since 2009. In reading, Hawaii and Maryland had increases in both grades. Hawaii was the only state to post higher scores in both subjects and both grades.
“We are on the right track in many respects, but we have a long way to go,” said Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for Maryland’s Education Department. He said the state was continuing to increase instructional rigor, particularly in math.
In Virginia, the average reading scores for fourth-graders and eighth-graders remained unchanged compared with 2009. Average math scores for both grades also were not statistically different from two years ago. In both subjects and in both grades, Virginia students outpaced the national average.
Virginia will implement new English standards in the next school year that will emphasize comprehension, vocabulary and research. “As schools implement these more challenging standards, it is my expectation that the reading performance of Virginia eighth-graders on the NAEP will improve,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said in a statement.
Federal officials who oversee the testing said they don’t have enough information to suggest factors behind the scores.
But Sean P. “Jack” Buckley, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said that demographic changes — such as an increase in students for whom English is a second language — might explain why overall reading scores remain flat. “That’s a plausible argument,” Buckley said. “But we would need a great deal of additional measurement.”
Overall, public schools have seen a drop in the number of white students and an increase in black, Hispanic and Asian students. The number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch — a yardstick that educators use to measure the number of children coming from poor households — also has increased.
For the first time, the test’s creators reported separate data for Asians and Pacific Islanders. Asian students scored higher than any other group, including whites, in reading and math.
Staff writer Bill Turque contributed to this report.
Students Show Growth in Math on National Test
The Washington Times
By Kimberly Hefling
November 1, 2011
New test scores show the nation’s fourth- and eighth-graders are doing the best ever in math, but schools still have a long way to go to get everyone on grade level. In reading, eighth-graders showed some progress.
Just a little more than one-third of the students were proficient or higher in reading. In math, 40 percent of the fourth-graders and 35 percent of the eighth-graders had reached that level.
The results Tuesday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are a stark reminder of just how far the nation’s schoolchildren are from achieving the No Child Left Behind law’s goal that every child in America be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
“The modest increases in NAEP scores are reason for concern as much as optimism,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “It’s clear that achievement is not accelerating fast enough for our nation’s children to compete in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.”
The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics administers the test.
On a 500-point scale, both fourth- and eighth-graders scored on average 1 point higher in math in 2011 than in 2009 and more than 20 points higher than in 1990, when students first were tested in math. In reading, the score for fourth-graders was unchanged from two years ago and four points higher than in 1992, when the test first was administered in reading. Eighth-graders in reading scored on average 1 point higher in 2011 compared with 2009 and 5 points higher than in 1992.
The results came as states clamor to develop proposals to obtain waivers around unpopular proficiency requirements in the No Child Left Behind law, which passed in 2002 and was heralded as a way to primarily help low-income and minority children.
President Obama in September said that since Congress had failed to rewrite the law, he was allowing states that met certain requirements to get around it. Forty states, in addition the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have said they intend to seek a waiver, according to the Education Department. Meanwhile, there has been some progress in both the House and Senate in rewriting the law, although it’s unclear whether Congress will act on it this year.
Historically, a large achievement gap has existed between the average scores of white students compared with black and Hispanic students, with white students scoring higher.
There were no noticeable changes in the gap between white and black students from 2009 to 2011. New test results, for example, show a 25-point gap between white and black fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and fourth-graders in math.
In both math and reading, however, Hispanic students in eighth grade made some strides to narrow the gap with white students from 2009 and 2011. In reading, for example, the 26-point gap in 1992 and 24-point gap in 2009 was reduced to 22 points in 2011.
This was the first year that test administrators separated Asian students from a broader category that previously included Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students. In both reading and math, the average scores for Asians were higher than other racial groups. Nearly two-thirds of Asian fourth-graders and nearly 60 percent of Asian eighth-graders posted scores at or above proficient in math. About half of all Asian students in both grades scored at the proficient level or higher in reading.
Among the states, Hawaii stood out as the only state to show improvements from 2009 to 2011 in both reading and math among both fourth- and eighth-graders. During the same period, New Mexico, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia showed gains in math among both fourth- and eighth-graders, and Maryland’s fourth- and eighth-graders each showed improvements in reading.
New York was the only state to score lower in math among fourth-graders from 2009 to 2011. Missouri was the only state with eighth-graders posting a lower score in math from two years earlier. Missouri and South Dakota had lower scores among fourth-graders in reading from 2009 to 2011.
The math assessment was given this year to 209,000 fourth-graders and 175,200 eighth-graders. The reading test was given to 213,100 fourth-graders and 168,200 eighth-graders.
U.S. Students’ Scores Go Up, but Racial Gaps Persist
The Washington Times
By Ben Wolfgang
November 1, 2011
U.S. students are making progress in reading and math, but the advances continue to be clouded by stubbornly high gaps between scores for white children and their black and Hispanic counterparts, according to a major new survey Tuesday from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The survey measuring fourth- and eighth-grade scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standardized tests found significant progress for both grade levels in mathematics and a slight improvement among eighth-grade readers. Reading scores among fourth graders, however, remained flat on the study’s 500-point scale - and the results leave America’s schools far behind the universal proficiency goals set by the 2002 No Child Left Behind law.
Since 1990, when the first NCES standardized tests were administered, scores for all ethnic groups have risen dramatically, but white students have remained far ahead. White fourth-graders scored an average of 249 points on math tests, while Hispanic students trailed at 229 points and black children were even further behind, coming in at 224 points on average.
The gulfs only widened by eighth grade, with black students 31 points behind and Hispanic children 23 points back, according to NCES.
On reading exams, the ethnic gaps topped 20 points in both grade levels.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday that while the overall average scores are encouraging, much work remains to be done.
“The scores are reason for concern as much as optimism,” he said in a statement. “It’s clear that achievement is not accelerating fast enough for our nation’s children to compete in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.”
Educators are also troubled by the lack of progress among fourth-grade readers. Since 1992, the average score has risen by only four points, from 217 to 221, and since 2007, the figure has remained stagnant.
“Even though this wasn’t a decline, I see it as losing ground,” Doris Hicks, principal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School for Science and Technology in New Orleans, told reporters Tuesday after the results were released.
While students’ performance isn’t accelerating as fast as many would like, few states are slipping backward. Only two states, New York and Missouri, saw average mathematics scores drop since 2009. Four jurisdictions, including the District, saw students’ performance on math exams rise over the past two years.
Five states, including Maryland, saw scores climb in fourth-grade math only, while nine states saw higher marks among eighth-graders.
The new results come at a time when congressional leaders are crafting bills to replace the decade-old No Child Left Behind law. One proposal, drafted by Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, and Sen. Michael B. Enzi, Wyoming Republican, would limit federal involvement to only the bottom 5 percent of schools and the 5 percent with the greatest achievement gaps between ethnic groups.
But some believe Tuesday’s report demonstrates that achievement gaps remain a serious problem in more than just 5 percent of schools, and are urging lawmakers to keep strict federal accountability standards in place for all districts.
“We’re headed in the right direction … but that doesn’t mean that we can afford to take our foot off the gas pedal, as the current Senate proposal would do,” said Kati Haycock, president of the nonprofit advocacy group The Education Trust.
Area Schools Gain on Federal Tests
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
November 1, 2011
Md., D.C. rise significantly, while Va. scores stay flat
The District and Maryland were among just a handful of states whose public schools made significant improvements on federal exams last spring, while Virginia's scores remained mostly flat on the "Nation's Report Card."
Hawaii was the only state to make big jumps in both reading and math in fourth and eighth grades, the two levels that were tested. But Maryland was praised by administrators of the National Assessment of Educational Progress for strong progress in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and fourth-grade math, while the District was one of only four jurisdictions to make notable gains in both grade levels of math.
See graph for how the region scored http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/10/area-schools-gain-federal-tests#ixzz1cYD4nmvd
Despite the progress, the District still came in last for both subjects in both grade levels. Maryland and Virginia were above the national average in all categories.
D.C.'s results follow a similar story line of the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, the exams called into question when a USA Today investigation pointed toward cheating on the high-stakes tests, which factor into teacher evaluations.
"I didn't want to bring up the C-word, but it does validate, I think, [the scores], all the changes that we've done, and how we conduct the D.C. CAS," said Marc Caposino, a spokesman for the Office of the State Superintendent for Education. "This can be another step toward trusting the results."
In the past year, eigth-grade math performance on the D.C. CAS increased by a whopping 8.2 percentage points, while the fourth-grade improvement was a more incremental 0.6 points.
Atasha James, a first-year principal at M.C. Terrell/McGogney Elementary in Congress Heights, said she was surprised by the lag in reading. While math scores jumped, reading stayed flat for eighth-graders and dropped 1 point (not considered statistically significant) for fourth-graders. However, in both grades more students moved into the "proficient" and "advanced" ranges.
"The District is putting an incredible amount of money, time and planning into reading, but even in our first-quarter review math was much higher than reading," James said.
Results specific to D.C. Public Schools will be released later this year.
While Massachusetts topped both math and reading in both grades, Maryland made some of the largest jumps nationwide in reading and fourth-grade math, tying for second with New Jersey in fourth-grade reading.
"It shows our students are getting an effective education," said William Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education.
It also shows that there's room for improvement in eighth-grade math, Reinhard said. "That's an area we have concerns about, and Maryland certainly isn't alone, but middle school is a difficult area."
Because Maryland's math standards are changing as the state adopts the Common Core federal curriculum standards, "we're hoping that paves the way for continued success."
Virginia's average scores on the tests increased slightly across grade levels and subjects, with the exception of fourth-grade reading. Wendy Geiger, the state's NAEP coordinator, said officials were pleased that more students floated out of "below basic" and "basic" performance levels into "proficient" and "advanced."
"It's a good population shift," she said.
Free Webinar: What's New in PowerSchool 7.0?
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011,11am-12pm
With the release of PowerSchool 7.0, Pearson has introduced many new features. This webinar will go through the important new features with examples of each to introduce schools to advancements within PowerSchool.
To register, click here, or visit www.focusdc.org/workshops.
Questions? Need special accommodations?
Contact Alison Collier at acollier@focusdc.org or 202.387.0405.