WASHINGTON — Kids are making strides in reading and math, though progress in math seems stalled among high school students, according to a federal report that tracked test scores going back to the 1970s.
The scores come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the benchmark of how students perform across the country. The report issued Tuesday measured children’s scores in 2008 against long-term trends.
It offered a glimmer of hope for high school kids. Their reading scores improved since 2004, the last time results were issued. In fact, every age group — 9, 13 and 17 — made gains over 2004. In math, scores improved for younger children since 2004, but scores for 17-year-olds remained flat.
Results were in line with long-term trends, said Darvin Winick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, the bipartisan panel that oversees the test.
Over time, schools have done rather well with elementary-school kids, better with middle-school kids and stalled with high school kids, Winick said. The report said 17-year-olds did no better at reading and math in 2008 than they did in the early 1970s.
The biggest gains came from low-achieving students. That is probably not an accident — the federal No Child Left Behind law and similar state laws have focused on improving the performance of minority and poor children, who lag behind their white classmates on standardized tests.
The overall gains in the report were modest, but one Education Department official pointed out that shifting demographics may obscure more significant progress among minority groups.
