After a generation of disruptive reforms—No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, VAM and Common Core—after a decade or more of disinvestment in education, after years of bashing and demoralizing teachers, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 2019 shows the results:
Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest-performing students are doing worse,” said Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP. “In fact, over the long term in reading, the lowest-performing students—those readers who struggle the most—have made no progress from the first NAEP administration almost 30 years ago.”
Since 2017, reading performance has dropped significantly across grades 4 and 8, with math performance mixed, based on results of the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progressreleased Wednesday. Some racial achievement gaps closed—in part because of falling scores among white students—and gaps between struggling and high-achieving students continued to widen.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos used the results as an opportunity to call for more charters and vouchers, although Florida (her model state, with large numbers of charters and vouchers) saw significant declines in both subjects and grades.
“Every American family needs to open The Nation’s Report Card this year and think about what it means for their child and for our country’s future,” said U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “The results are, frankly, devastating. This country is in a student achievement crisis, and over the past decade it has continued to worsen, especially for our most vulnerable students.”
DeVos called the results a “wakeup call,” arguing, “We can neither excuse them away nor simply throw more money at the problem.”
Instead, DeVos seems to be doubling down on expanding school choice. She pledged a “transformational plan” by the administration to help students “escape failing schools.”
However, NCES found that in more than half of states and systems tested in math, 6 percent to 14 percent of students had teachers who reported “serious problems” with inadequate classroom supplies.
Every year for at least the last decade, NAEP results have been described either as “a wake-up call” or “a Sputnik moment.”
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I just heard a news broadcast on NPR that proclaimed an increase from NAEP scores in both reading and math. Is this a statistic which can be manipulated to say one thing rather than another?
No.
The scores were flat or down. There have been no gains since 2007.
Reading was down more than math.
A few spots saw gains: DC and Mississippi.
The lowest scoring urban districts were Detroit and Milwaukee, both of which have extensive choices programs.
Detroit is flooded with charters.
Milwaukee has both charters and vouchers.
Politico Morning Education:
TEST SCORES SLUMP IN ‘NATION’S REPORT CARD’: Fourth- and eighth-grade average scores on the “Nation’s Report Card,” released today, declined since the 2017 assessment, except for an increase in mathematics for fourth graders.
— Average math and reading scores on the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, for students in both grades appear to have stagnated since the 2009 tests, though the nation has seen more progress in math since the 1990s. More from your host.
— DeVos, in a statement, called the results “devastating” and highlighted her plan to expand “education freedom” as a way to help “America’s forgotten students escape failing schools.”
— “Two out of three of our nation’s children aren’t proficient readers,” she said. “In fact, fourth grade reading declined in 17 states and eighth grade reading declined in 31. The gap between the highest and lowest performing students is widening, despite $1 trillion in Federal spending over 40 years designated specifically to help close it.”
— She added, “This must be America’s wakeup call. We cannot abide these poor results any longer.”
— DeVos’ remarks at the National Press Club today, expected from 2:30 to 2:45 p.m., will cover the release of the report and will be livestreamed. Read more details on the full event from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Addendum to DeVos remarks:
The lowest performing urban districts—Detroit and Milwaukee—have had school choice for 25 years.
“Literacy” now takes up half the day in elementary school and yet NAEP reading scores are down. Something is wrong with the way we’re teaching literacy.
You are correct. Instead of real reading, writing and thinking, many schools have replaced it with test prep behaviorism. Students that do not read extensively and read for pleasure will falter on standardized tests. We do not need more charters or voucher as DeVos has maintained. Public schools need to be freed from punitive high stakes testing so teachers can have academic freedom to do a better job.
When my children were in ES, they had reading and math in the morning. In the afternoon they had 1 hr of ELA Data analysis every day and 45 mins of Math Data Analysis 2 times per week. At the time, I didn’t know that data analysis was code word for “test prep”. Little did I know that social studies and science were 45 mins 3 times a week and only for 2 semesters each. Recess was was a measly 20 mins and I was told that my children were the “lucky ones”. Curriculum in a can hasn’t worked, constant testing hasn’t worked, but the kids sure hate school. Go figure….all the tax dollars spent on education for children to be this unhappy for a large portion of their lives?
We’ve sacrificed history and science at the altar of literacy –and the fruit is reduced literacy! Wake up, teachers. This modern method of teaching literacy ain’t working. Show me one human who’s literate by virtue of this new method (tedious close reading exercises). Show me one!
Ponderosa, who are you talking to when you say, Wake up teachers??? Teachers have no say in much of this. Before you blame someone, get your facts straight.
They’ll just double down on the agenda. I don’t think there’s any energy or interest in examining ed reform and even if there were energy or interest it’s such a cloistered echo chamber no one who did dissent would ever be permitted inside.
Look at the work histories of the high profile ed reformers. They exist inside The Movement. Whole careers are conducted within the narrow confines- 1. choice and 2. testing. There is nothing else.
The narrowing starts at the top. You don’t get hired or promoted in ed reform unless you recite the commandments. No one new gets past the initial gate-keepers.
most depressing seven words known to be reality: They’ll just double down on the agenda.
Let’s change the paradigm of the school day, give teachers their back their classrooms (with fewer students) in order to create a community within the larger school community. If teachers could have time to REALLY teach reading (original Orton-Gillingham–not the business models), and apply those skills to civics, geography, and history (as well and grammar and literature), the kids would thrive. Those students who need 1:1 for speech, dyslexia, or other learning issues could have their own periods of instruction during the school day with trained consultants. The arts would be, as they are now, a celebration of what students and teachers build together.
We’ll never know of course but I wonder what the results would have been if we had gone in a different direction for the last 20 years and worked for investment and slow and steady progress instead of quick fixes and gimmicks.
The US signed onto the ed reform vision of public education which involves an opportunity cost- it means they also made a decision not to do anything else. If you have kids in public schools you watched it unfold- public schools and students were neglected or actively undermined under THREE CONSECUTIVE presidential administrations.
They simply don’t value public schools and since public school students are IN those schools they are necessarily and inevitably harmed as a result of that.
“Some racial achievement gaps closed— in part because of falling scores among white students ” Doesn’t that just say it all? A Pyrrhic victory.
Could it be that the NAEP score only reflect the amount of time people have to spend on things that would make people do better on the test?
From that point, we can proceed to decide why people do not spend the needed time. I think this is the basic question about anything we do. We do well at what we do. If we read, we become better readers. If we do math problems, we get better at math problems. If we play basketball…you get the picture.
So our question in education is how to maximize the amount of time our students spend doing the things we want them to do. This seems so obvious that there is no point in repeating it. Seems like the reform movement has failed at this, according to their mighty tests.
Maybe we should give the job of reform back to the teachers? DeVos says we cannot “excuse” the problems evidenced by this test. Can we reason them? If we do reason about them, will she just use our reasons as an excuse to do whatever she wants?
I have been reading responses. You’re the first one to mention give back teaching to the teachers. The main reason their are problems is because non-teachers are running the show.
Roy,
Or maybe someone else here can answer a question.
What did teachers and schools do to prepare for the NAEP, before NCLB?
NAEP has been with us for 50-years, according to their Facebook posts.
And while I find the assessments useful for my studies, I am not a campaigner to keep or expand them due to the way they are frequently used. Especially when there use intentionally causes harm, violating my basic moral, ethical, and leadership values. And I have a bone to pick over the incredible lack of transparency.
Well, at least Secretary DeVos is right that these scores should be a wake-up call. (Of course, she’s getting the wrong message.)
Don’t wake ME up until Betsy is gone.
“Weiss blamed the lack of upward movement in the subject on an ignorance of prevailing literacy research. Experts have complained for decades that many young children are inadequately exposed to phonics-based instruction, leading them to miss important reading milestones early in their school careers”
To read this stuff one would never know these people have been wholly in charge of US education policy for the last 30 years.
There’s no accountability at all. It’s as if they all just arrived on the scene.
Every single gimmick, fad and quick fix Betsy DeVos and her fellow travelers dreamed up was jammed into place in Michigan. They got everything they demanded, for 25 years. The results come in and the entire response consists of blaming other people.
Let’s try to find a single ed reformer who accepts any responsibility at all, for anything.
This is their project! They assured the public repeatedly that 1. choice and 2. testing was guaranteed to “improve” schools. Why hasn’t it?
Bush- Obama- Trump. All lockstep “market based” ed reform. Isn’t it time to try something else?
The Milwaukee voucher program started in 1990. It expanded in 1998 to include religious schools. So, thirty years of vouchers. The students in voucher schools perform no better than those in public schools; same for charters.
Milwaukee is one of lowest performing cities tested by NAEP.
Don’t give a damn about the completely invalid NAEP results. A total waste of time, energies and resources.
OMG!!! YOU’RE ALIVE! You’ve been missing from the conversations for too long. Glad you’re back.
Welcome back, Duane. Many wondered if you were okay. Missed your voice.
Thanks all for your kindness in responding!
Been a “stupid” year physically-serious pain issues. Took some time away from a lot of things. Things are screwy when I don’t even feel like reading. Am now just getting back into the swing of things (new med for the fibromyalgia is helping).
Again thanks for your kindness!
Duane
I have had occasional bouts of a form of fibromyalgia called “Polymyalgia Rheumatica” which is incredibly disabling. Fortunately I have had not experienced it for a couple of years but I know how awful it is.
Don’t want to bore people with my health issues, but I’ll have to look up the polymyalgia rheumatica as I also have rheumatic and osteo-arthritis and a few other musculo-skeletal issues. As I told Left Coast Teacher “If someone would have told me when I was young that I would be hurting this bad at this point. . . I still would have done everything that has contributed to the current situation”
At least I’m feeling a bit better overall but still more fatigued than I like. Oh, well, I just have to adjust to what it is.
Good to see you back. I am sorry to hear about your health problems. I thought perhaps you were too busy fishing to post. Outlets have been great fishing lately.
I had been recently wondering if you think that terms like “literate”, “illiterate”, or “semi-literate” have any meaning? I think the answer is probably no because these labels must be based on some kind of standardized exam, but I may be mistaken about your views.
Yes, they certainly have meaning, and no, an assessment of how well a person can read certainly doesn’t need to be (and really can’t be) determined by a standardized test. It is best determined by someone qualified in teaching reading. As far as labeling a person, well now, that is a significant problem. Providing adequate resources so that the child/adult, whomever, can learn to adequately read is a key and also a problem because we haven’t taken the time nor resources to ensure that all who can read will read.
Sr. Swacker, Hidalgo. Welcome back!
My work in regards to standardized testing is making the results understandable. I for one would like the Nation to understand what is hidden in the results before we kill it off. I have plumbed the depths of this abyss, and while I have yet to explore every nook and cranny it is a story worthy of Halloween. The question I face every day, am I capable of telling it?
If you would please expand upon exactly what you do in “making the results understandable.” From a teacher’s perspective or test maker or ???
In what ways have you explored the abyss?
What of the “story” do you consider the most damning?
Thanks!
Discussing NAEP results = an exquisite session of mental masturbation.
Swack is Back! We are excited.
Thanks, Roy!
I’ve got an idea! Let’s take money away from school districts, especially the poor ones. Then let’s make classes bigger! Kids do love company, you know. And have a lot of really young teachers with little training. They’ll be like peers for the kids! And then buy a lot – a whole bunch – of computers and have the kids in the large classes sit there and press keys when they recognize a word! Then we can give them lots of practice tests and then lots more practice tests. We can have many, many special charter schools with bright banners the kids won’t be able to read, but they’ll like them anyway! And we can put the names of Ivy League colleges over every door! Of course, we won’t let them talk much, because that’s disruptive. And they will learn to sit still and, when they’re allowed to get up, they can walk in really straight lines because, as we all know, that’s a 21st century skill. All that’s lacking is the will to make these really good changes. Can I be the next Education Secretary? I can type, file things and stuff like that . . .
Sorry but the edudeformers and privateers already have the copyright and patent protections for all of that. How much are you willing to pay them to use their brilliant ideas?
This all makes sense. All you need to do is make a million-dollar contribution to Trump’s 2021 inaugural committee, and I’m sure you will be a shoe-in for the position.
Remember how the high-stakes standardized testing was going to “fix the education problem,” leave no child behind, and race us to the top? Remember how Lord Coleman’s “higher” [suppressing a bitter laugh here] Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] were going to do the same?
Well, here we are. Even by their own measures–test scores–the Ed Deformers’ magic elixirs have UTTERLY FAILED.
So, what should we do about that? Ask any deformer: keeping buying the elixirs. Billions of dollars worth of them. Drink them more gritfully while clicking your heels together and reciting, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” You see, it was all in the implementation.
I am prepared to wager that the Disruption Industry will see the disappointing NAEP scores as proof that we need to do more of the same, but harder, tougher, and meaner. I hear Arne saying, “Stay the course.” Betsy saying, “ More educational freedom.” Bill Gates saying, “ More testing, tougher teacher evaluations.” Laurene Powell Jobs, “Innovation Needed.”
They never admit failure.
Alas, yes. Entirely predictable.
Oh, and of course, more depersonalized education software.
Oh, but you said that: “Innovation needed.” Ofc.
Happy Samhain, Diane!
Dear Diane Ravitch,
On several occasions in the last year, several of your faithful followers have tried to beat me up, metaphorically by using you as an example. And because I have not published my unconventional studies of assessment outcomes for them to nitpick through. Truthfully, I suspect they stopped engaging me on social media because I would dig up the hard data and use it. I remember your work at EdWeek and found it thoughtful and interesting. In September I started publishing at The Afterclap. And as soon as I work out how I am going to format Georgia’s NAEP results I will publish them, and soon after the Nation’s results. My published work and yours, if this is an adequate example is very different. Good luck, and I will will try to stop by for a visit on occasion.
Please feel welcome to join the conversation. The only rules of engagement are 1) do not insult me personally; 2) be civil to others; 3) no curse words (an occasional damn and hell excepted).
Went to the afterclap site and not much there yet. (I understand as I haven’t attended to my wordpress site in years.)
I am quite interested in reading and discussing your “unconventional studies”.
Was I one who “beat you up”?? Sorry, I don’t remember everything I’ve written on the various blogs. Anyway, I’m definitely interested in what you have to say.
Be aware, though, I consider the whole pyschometric field a mine field of onto-epistemological errors and falsehoods as show by Wilson, myself and others. I’ve been looking for a cogent rebuttal to Wilson’s work for 20 years now and haven’t seen a single one, although I’ve seen a couple that show the writer didn’t read and understand what Wilson has proven of the invalidities involved in standardized tests.
If you don’t wish to continue the conversation in public feel free to contact me at dswacker@centurytel.net Make sure you put something in the subject line about testing
Duane, we are good.
At the Afterclap we simply believe that every scaled score assessment can be expressed on the scale of zero to one-hundred. A percent of a perfect score is how I frequently express it. Something we suspect the Stakeholders understand.
What makes our work unconventional is converting scaled score, into their Grade equivalents. Part of our reasoning is (as far as we are concerned) Testing and Education authorities have violated (in our opinion) the most essential element in teaching. Taking a student from a known place of knowledge and understanding, to an unknown place of knowledge and understanding, and making that the new current known place. And they have not provided Stakeholders the instruction necessary to take them from their knowledge and understanding of scaled scores from 0 to 100, to all of their invented scales. For which they tell the Stakeholders what they should believe, and think.
We simple convert them to something we believe Stakeholders understand. And let them think for themselves. We believe that if it is not self evident, then you can be told anything someone else wants you to believe.
Since we started publishing in September you will not find a lot, yet.
Maybe the Aferclap’s approach is to simple. Or maybe we are just idiots. That has been discussed here multiple times before one word was published, and several times since. And we have been told that we expect too much from Stakeholders. But we are not ready to give up on them.
Any suggestions to improve will be appreciated.
Peace!
“simple” should have been simply. I was in a hurry to participate in a family commitment.
Duane,
You asked some earlier questions, and I hope I explained what I do, and for whom. However, the elevator speech version:
I translate standardized test scaled scores into classroom equivalent grades to help Stakeholders better understand the outcomes.
Q. “In what ways have you explored the abyss?”
I study the data to hear the stories within it.
Okay, I know the English might call that statement “mental.” And I suspect there have been more than a few local staff members and administrators who have thought the same thing. What I find weird is the people who are supposed to be knowledgeable about testing that does not hear the stories.
Take Georgia’s 2019 NAEP results for both grades and domains for an example. The data shows that more than 91% of the students taking NAEP were left behind, and provided a reasonable explanation of how many, and several levels of depth describing how far they were left behind.
Q. “What of the “story” do you consider the most damning?”
Education authorities not being understandably honest with the outcomes, or the possibility they do not understand the devil they created, and the size of the monster it has become.
If you have more questions relating to the Afterclap, please ask.