A Sliver of Hope?
An optimistic take on the latest NAEP scores
Over at The 74 I have a new piece on the surprisingly positive gains made by 9-year-olds on the latest NAEP exams:
The key trend over the last 10 to 15 years has been a steady decline in student performance across a range of tests, across ages and grade levels, and across a variety of subjects. Moreover, the steepest declines have been among the lowest-performing kids.
But the latest results showed something different. In math, for example, the median score for 9-year-olds rose 3.5 points. For the highest performers (those at the 90th percentile), scores rose by 0.7 points. In contrast, for students at the 10th percentile, their math scores rose 7.5 points. Similarly, in reading, the lowest performers gained 9.3 points.
The gains were meaningful, historically large, and widespread across student groups.
You can read my piece for more, including important caveats and comparisons to other data sources.
Reading List
Aldeman: Grade inflation causes students to learn less
Tom Loveless: What Are Reasonable Goals for NAEP Scores?
Hannah Irion-Frake: Why I Stopped Using Running Records and Why You Should Too
Daisy Christodoulou: You can’t learn everything through the medium of Taylor Swift