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This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers

Sunday, October 23, 2005

New Set of Test Scores, Same Lack of Progress

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    True or false? The 2005 scores for the National Assessment of Educational Progress test are "encouraging," as President Bush says, because it shows black and Hispanic students closing the achievement gap.
    Or, "the absence of really bad news isn't the same as good news." That's the assessment of Ross Wiener of The Education Trust, which focuses on poor and minority students.
    The best news from NAEP testing of fourth and eighth graders, according to the unvarnished numbers, was the 4-point nationwide increase in the number of fourth graders scoring proficient or better in math. But 64 percent still score below the proficient level. Other results were about the same as in the 2003 round, except for eighth-grade reading scores, which declined.
    That national pattern was mirrored in New Mexico's results. Math scores were stable. Reading scores were slightly higher for fourth graders and slightly lower in the eighth grade. Overall, New Mexico students continued to rank below the national averages in both areas.
    State Education Secretary Veronica Garcia cites the usual culprits of poverty and non-English-proficient students for the discouraging scores.
    A similar lack of progress has been seen in other standardized test scores in New Mexico. That raises more questions: Are the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind reforms— which place special emphasis on disadvantaged and minority students— raising their rate of proficiency? Or is the achievement gap closing because the de-emphasized students are stagnating scholastically?