There’s not much good news in today’s National Assessment of Educational Progress results for mathematics. As Chester Finn told the New York Times:
The trend is flat; it’s a plateau. Scores are not going anywhere, at least nowhere important. That means that eight years after enactment of No Child Left Behind, the problems it set out to solve are not being solved, and now we’re five years from the deadline and we’re still far, far from the goal.
But there is a silver lining for DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee (portrayed as “DC’s Braveheart” in a new Education Next profile): her schools, and those in just four states, were the only ones to post gains in both fourth and eighth grades over the past two years. That should give her reform efforts a much-needed boost.
Update: The NAEP results can be found here.
