Good news - A new report shows our nation's fourth-grade reading scores on NAEP have increased.
Bad news - The same report shows that the NAEP reading scores for high school seniors have consistently declined.
The report can be found here (requires Adobe Acrobat). The New York Times has the story:
...the data released today suggest that serious problems loom at the high school level. They showed average reading scores dropping in virtually every level of expertise among 12th graders, both since the last exam in 1998 and in 1992, when the first comparable exams were given.
In 1992, the share of 12th graders who had not mastered the basics of reading was one in five. By last year's exam, fewer than one in four read at what the test defined as a "basic level." In earlier exams, 12th graders showed falling scores in math and science, while their performance on history and geography tests has remained flat.
How in hell will a student who hasn't mastered the basics of reading by 12th-grade stand a chance of understanding history and science? This is appalling. And the fourth-grade numbers don't look too great when broken down by race. Overall, 36% of fourth-graders don't read at the basic level - but that translates to 25% of white youngsters, and 60% of black youngsters.
Anyone who can look at these numbers and claim that the public school system works just fine, or that testing is the problem, is absolutely insane. I know there are good schools and good teachers out there. But a system that produces one out of four high school seniors who can't read at a basic level is just not working.
For example, here's the assessment example book for NAEP 12th-grade reading. That exam is a 50-minute exam composed of multiple-choice and short and extended open-ended items. Students have 25 minutes to read a story, article, or document and answer questions about it.
Interestingly, the first example is a tax form. Seriously. We're not talking lyrical clarity, but we're also not talking dense prose. It's a legal document, and the questions students have to answer are along the lines of:
Give one reason why you would not use the 1040EZ form, even if you were single.
Name one place where you can find the instructions for completing the 1040EZ tax return.
In order to find the amount of your taxable income, you must
A multiply the state sales tax by your gross income
B subtract line 4 from line 3 on the tax return
C add line 6 and line 7 on the tax return
D ask your employer for the amount of your adjusted income
It ain't Shakespeare - but it is a document most adults use and must understand at some point in their lives. Because all of the information is given, the item doesn't rely on prior knowledge, and it does measure how well you can understand and follow written directions.
More examples are shown in the report. In one case, test takers read a speech by one Mr. Newton Minow, given in 1961 to the National Association of Broadcasters, in which he criticizes American television programming.
The first sample question:
Mr. Minow mainly supported his position with
A personal opinions
B rating statistics
C recommendations from advertisers
D newspaper articles
Only 72% got this item right, but this shouldn't have been a hard item. No interpretation was required - the student just had to be able to locate where in the passage Mr. Minow explained his argument. This item is located on NAEP's scale within the "Basic" group, and over a quarter of the high school seniors who were tested missed it.
The 12th-grade breakdowns can be found on page 24 of this document. Only 6% of test takers read at an Advanced level, 35% at Proficient, 36% at Basic, and 23% at Below Basic - up from 20% 9 years ago.
"Below Basic" readers are defined as having mastered at most only the following skills:
Use task directions and prior knowledge to make a comparison. Describe main action of story. Identify explicitly stated reason for article event. Identify explicitly stated description from text.
That's it. The ability to restate exactly what the reading passage says is all that the Below Basic test takers - almost a quarter of the sample - have managed to glean from 12 years of reading instruction. And these are kids who haven't dropped out, who have remained in the system. What good will a high school diploma do them at this point?
Update: A friend sent me this story from New Zealand. Give 'em a few years and we'll see how they do on NAEP...
Update #2: Scrappleface has the story on the new "Leave No Dollar Behind" educational plan...
Posted by kswygert at June 19, 2003 11:47 AM