By Anthony Cody.
Towards the end of his press conference today, President Obama was asked about the state of African Americans and race relations in the country. Part of his answer related to education. He stated:
We’ve seen some progress, in the education reforms that we’ve initiated are showing measurable results. We have the highest high school graduation that we’ve seen in a very long time. We are seeing record numbers of young people attending college. In many states that have initiated reforms you’re seeing progress in math scores and reading scores for African American and Latino students as well as the broader population — but we’ve still got a ways to go.
There is indeed evidence to support the statement regarding high school graduation rates. The number of young people enrolled in college is also higher than ever. However, as to President Obama’s last claim, I am not sure how this can be true.
New York State, one of the places where Obama administration’s reforms have been implemented the most aggressively in the nation, has indeed seen a shift in African American and Latino test scores — but that shift has been downward. In March, Carol Burris and Alan Aja shared the dismal results:
In New York for example, one of the first states to roll out the new curriculum, scores from Common Core tests dropped like a stone—and the achievement gaps dramatically widened. In 2012, prior to the Core’s implementation, the state reported a 12-point black/white achievement gap between average third-grade English Language Arts scores, and a 14-point gap in eighth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) scores. A year later enter the Common Core-aligned tests: the respective gaps grew to 19 and 25 points respectively (for Latino students the eighth grade ELA gap grew from 3 to 22 points). The same expansion of the gap occurred in math as well. In 2012, there was an 8-point gap between black/white third-grade math scores and a 13-point gap between eighth-grade math scores. In 2013, the respective gaps from the Common Core tests expanded to 14 and 18 points.
The problem however, is more than just a gap in average scores. Using another indicator, the percentage of black students who scored “Below Standard” in third-grade English Language Arts tests rose from 15.5 percent to a shocking 50 percent post-Common Core implementation. In seventh-grade math, black students labeled “Below Standard” jumped from 16.5 percent to a staggering 70 percent. Students with disabilities of all backgrounds saw their scores plummet– 75 percent of students with disabilities scored “Below Standard” on the Grade 5 ELA Common Core tests and 78 percent scored “Below Standard” on the 7th grade math test. Also, 84 percent of English Language learners score “Below Standard” on the ELA test while 78 percent scored the same on the 7th grade math exam.
Did I miss something? Are there some other tests that indicate a different trend? Is there somewhere in the country where the Obama administration’s reforms are actually yielding increases in test scores for African American and Latino students? Have I missed something?
Update: Here is a link to the latest NAEP report card, which suggests scores are flat and the achievement gaps have not closed.
Monty Neill
Even using test scores, NAEP, rates of progress are slower since NCLB than in the mid-90s to 2003 period for almost every demographic group in reading and math at all 3 grades. That is not even counting all the ‘collateral damage’ like narrowed curriculum, turning subjects into test prep, and eating up vast amounts of time and money to test students in order to judge teachers or through ‘interim’ tests used by districts desperate to raise their end of year scores.
Ed Kitlowski
Daniel Pink makes a great distinction in his book, Drive, The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us. There is a goal of getting an A in French and there is the goal of learning French. All the data Mr. Obama uses is not an indication of learning. I know many students with high school diplomas who did not learn.
howardat58
How ANY meaning can be ascribed to changes in test scores from one year to the next when the curriculum has changed and the tests have changed bothers me in the extreme. I have clearly wasted many years of my life teaching statistics and statistical methods. Is there a rational explanation ?
Karl Wheatley
The NAEP long term trend scores for 17-year-olds were flat from 2008-2012 in both reading and math for both genders and all racial groups. For those who trust test scores, since age 17 is at the end of the test-driven schooling period, this pattern shows no evidence of gains, and the toxic testing has caused staggering harm.
Scores at grade 4 should generally be ignored because we’ve always been good at accelerating young children’s test scores in ways that yields no lasting benefits (but that does turn them off to learning).