NAEP shows some students still lack writing skills

After decades of paper-and-pencil tests, the new results from the “nation’s report card” in writing come from a computer-based assessment for the first time, but only about one-quarter of the 8th and 12th graders performed at the proficient level or higher. And the proficiency rates were far lower for black and Hispanic students.
With the new National Assessment of Educational Progress in writing, students not only responded to questions and composed their essays on laptop computers, but also were evaluated on how frequently they used word-processing review tools like “spell check” and editing tools such as copying and cutting text. Some prompts also featured multimedia components. (Nora Fleming at Education Week)

Rigorous classes lead to achievement

"Students who take more rigorous courses in high school are more likely to perform well on achievement tests, according to a study released today that shows more students are doing just that.
The 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress High School Transcript Study reveals that the percentage of high school graduates completing a “rigorous” curriculum, with higher-level mathematics and science curricula, jumped from 5 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2009. Those who took a “midlevel” curriculum increased from 26 percent to 46 percent in the same period." (Caralee J. Adams at Education Week)

To read more, click here.

Report on student science knowledge

But one national "report card" on test scores, released Tuesday morning, paints a dismal picture of how well the country’s students have mastered science.

Just 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders are performing at or above “proficient” in the most recent snapshot from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which gives science scores from 2009. A very small number – just 1 or 2 percent at each grade level – scored at the “advanced” level, and relatively large numbers of students didn’t even meet the most basic level. (Amanda Paulson at Yahoo news)

To read more, click the above hyperlinked text.  To see how North Dakota is doing, click here. (Across tested subject areas, ND is mostly above national averages.)