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Scores Up Since 'No Child' Was Signed
Christopher Poulos, left, Connecticut's teacher of the year, state Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings at a meeting on the No Child Left Behind law in Stamford, Conn., last week.
(By Bob Child -- Associated Press)
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"I think the study certainly will be helpful for winning reauthorization of No Child Left Behind," Kildee said. "Passing a major education bill is difficult, but I think the energy is there, and this study will contribute to the will to get something done."
Researchers for the nearly $1 million study -- titled "Answering the Question That Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased Since No Child Left Behind?" -- spent 18 months gathering data from the states, much of which was verified and brought together for the first time. They said D.C. public schools did not cooperate.
The study examined the percentage of students whose scores were rated as proficient or higher, a frequently reported measure, and a less-common statistical tool, known as "effect size," to help gauge average student performance. Conclusions were drawn from states that administered comparable tests for at least three years. Gaps in the data meant that not all states were included in evaluations of certain subjects and grade levels.
The study found that gains tended to be larger in math than in reading and larger at the elementary level than in middle and high school.
In elementary school math, 37 out of 41 states with adequate data showed significant gains.
In middle school reading, such increases were found in 20 out of 39 states, and in high school reading, in 16 out of 37.
The study also found that 14 of 38 states with sufficient data showed shrinking gaps in reading scores between black and white students and that there was no evidence of a widening achievement gap in that subject in other states. The researchers cautioned that the gaps remain enormous, with black students scoring as many as 30 percentage points, on average, behind white students in some states.
The analysis also found that test-score gains accelerated after enactment of No Child Left Behind in nine of the 13 states with sufficient data.
In the Washington region, the study confirmed previous reports of increases in reading and math scores in Maryland and Virginia.
Virginia was one of the few states where gains slowed after 2002. Andrew J. Rotherham, a member of the state Board of Education, said Virginia had made major progress before the law took effect.
Some scholars criticized the report's methodology. Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, said it made little sense to draw conclusions when so few states have adequate data. He also said the researchers overstated small gains and did not adequately address states that he said have been dumbing down standards.
"These big-hearted analysts, to amend an adage, look at a glass that's nine-tenths' empty and celebrate that it's one-tenth full," Fuller wrote in an e-mail.
Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the District-based Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and who has criticized the law's implementation, said the study showed that academic performance is moving in the right direction even though much remains to done.
"It's not champagne time," Finn said. "But it's not sackcloth and ashes time, either."
