Meager Gains on NAEP Reading Assessments

Meager Gains on NAEP Reading Assessments: "

Dear Deborah,

In my book I argue that No Child Left Behind was a failed strategy. We both know the reasons why. It narrowed the curriculum; it introduced a culture of testing and test prepping into the nation's schools; it represented an unprecedented extension of federal control into the nation's schools; it required teaching to what are admittedly inadequate tests; it demanded an unrealistic goal of 100 percent proficiency for all children in all groups; it encouraged states to inflate their scores; it promoted cheating and gaming the system; and it harmed public education because no state was able to reach the law's utopian goal.

I further argued, based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data from 2003 onward, that NCLB did not even produce significantly higher test scores. The gains in math and in 4th grade reading were significant, but not as large as the gains recorded prior to implementation of NCLB. If so much time and money was invested in these subjects, why did the rate of improvement slow down?

Now the NAEP reading scores for 2009 are out, and the news for NCLB is bad. Reading scores in 4th grade were unchanged since 2007 and up by 1 point in 8th grade. The report says in large type that the 1-point increase from 2007 to 2009 is significant, but the graph shows that student scores for this grade are exactly the same as they were in 1998. The scale score in 1998 was 264. The scale score in 2009 was 264. These are the NCLB babies. This is the generation that has been tested every year since 3rd grade. Their scores are no higher today than their counterparts in 1998...