After disappointing test results in NC, a mixed bag on answers

North Carolina student scores on national reading and math tests starkly show that a performance gap between low-income students and their better-off peers grew in most areas.

Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, called the Nation’s Report Card, showed that eighth-grade scores in math and reading dropped in the state, and fourth-grade math remained largely unchanged from 2013.

Only fourth-grade reading showed an improvement.

NAEP released results Wednesday for fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math tests.

North Carolina was one of three states where overall average scores dropped in both eighth-grade reading and math. Nationally, average scores on all tests dropped, except for fourth-grade reading. Those results stayed the same.

Not all students take the NAEP tests. A representative sample of students is selected to answer test questions.

Asked whether Common Core, the controversial new standards for English language arts and math, is responsible for the disappointing results, national education leaders warned against attributing the decline to a single cause.

“It is far too soon for us to have a full understanding of the causes of the score changes; fingers have been pointed at demographics, reform policies, the ongoing implementation of the Common Core State Standards, poverty, and more,” said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, a bipartisan group that helped develop Common Core.

“It is going to take careful analysis to disentangle and assign weight to the range of possible causes and then determine what local, state, and national responses should be,” Cohen’s statement said.

The Education Trust, a national organization focused on academic achievement for students in poverty, said the gap for low-income students is widening and that uneven implementation of new standards might be one factor.

“It’s not an easy shift,” said Sonja Brookins Santelises, vice president of K-12 policy and practice for The Education Trust. “We have to make sure that people have what they need to make that shift. There are places where it’s gone well and places where they need more support.”

In North Carolina, the fouth-grade math test result was the only area where the achievement gap did not widen between students who qualify for free or reduced lunch and other students.

In other tests, the difference grew: one point for fourth-grade reading, three points for eighth-grade reading, and six points for eighth-grade math.

The federal education law called No Child Left Behind served to bring attention to achievement gaps. The law is controversial because it requires states to test students in English language arts and math each year, a practice critics say has led to excessive testing. Under No Child Left Behind as it was originally implemented, schools that did not improve faced sanctions.

The persistent gaps illustrate that “test-and-punish policies” are a failure, said FairTest, a national organization that opposes standardized testing.

Overall, fourth-grade reading scores in the state stood out among otherwise lackluster results.

The state has a new literacy law called Read to Achieve that requires most students to read at grade level by the end of third grade or else risk being retained.

This is the second set of test results where increases in fourth-grade reading served as a bright spot. Fourth-grade reading scores on this year’s end-of-grade tests also showed improvement.

N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger, who pushed the law, said Wednesday that he was pleased it was helping students.

“Fourth grade is typically when students stop learning to read and start reading to learn,” Berger, an Eden Republican, said in a statement. “Those who can’t master this basic life skill will face a lifetime of hardship, and I am delighted to see the Read to Achieve program is making real progress at preparing North Carolina students for future success.”

But Terry Stoops of the conservative Locke Foundation said he wasn’t ready to say Read to Achieve deserves credit for the reading score improvement or that Common Core is to blame for other declines.

“The best strategy right now is for everyone to step back and wait for more specific analysis,” Stoops said.

“Let’s look at what’s going on in those grades and subjects – what kind of instructional practices are benefiting and not benefiting students, then try to go from there.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 8:57 PM with the headline "After disappointing test results in NC, a mixed bag on answers."