I've expressed concern several times in these pages about the poor showing of our students in world-wide tests of mathematics and sciences. Well, the results of this year's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests strike me as particularly troubling, but maybe it's because of my age.
When I was in school, any grade below 60 was considered failing. The NAEP test is based on a scale of 500 points. So, if you apply the 60 concept to this 500 scale, any score below 300 would be a failing score. What do you suppose the average score was for fourth graders in our nation's schools? Would you believe 238 for math and 219 for reading? Eighth graders did better but not by much - 279 for math, 262 for reading.
What is going on? The test results showed that only 36% of fourth graders were able to handle "challenging, grade-appropriate material" for math, while only 30% of eighth graders could.
The results of these tests are only very slightly better than the tests of 1990, but our Education Secretary says our education reform efforts are on the right track. When did we move to a position where failing grades are accepted?
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