It used to be, while I was living in South or North Carolina, that any discussion of the state's test scores was ended with, "Thank God for Mississippi." The southern states are known for being bottom-feeders when it comes to overall test scores, especially when the performance of poor children is examined.
Well, now SC and NC can say, "Thank God for California":
It has often been comforting for education watchers to ascribe such gaps to California's high level of poverty among minority students. But the NAEP data don't support that old saw. Other states have poor children in large numbers, and if NAEP is an indicator, they do much better by them than we do.
California's average reading scores for students who were eligible for free and reduced-price lunches were the lowest of any state in the nation, at both fourth and eighth grade. Sixty-seven percent of California's poor fourth-graders scored "below basic" in reading (meaning they could not even demonstrate "partial mastery" of the subject matter for their grade level). In New York, 49 percent scored "below basic"; in Texas 52 percent; Florida, 51 percent. In eighth-grade math, the percentage of California poor children scoring "below basic" was 62; only Alabama and Mississippi had more low-scoring students.
It's a sad day when Californians can look at test scores and say, "thank God for Alabama and Mississippi."
(Found via Education Weak.)
Posted by kswygert at November 25, 2003 01:29 PM