4th-graders' math scores stall

WASHINGTON — New math scores show fourth-graders made no gains since 2007, the first time in two decades they have failed to improve. Eighth-graders advanced for yet another year.

Education officials called the results troubling, even though it is impossible to know from one test whether progress over the long term has stalled.

"We're clearly not requiring enough of our math teachers," said David Driscoll, chairman of the board that oversees the tests and a former education commissioner in Massachusetts.

Teachers lack training even in his state, which posted the highest scores in math. When Massachusetts beefed up the math portion of the elementary teacher test in 2007, 55 percent of teachers failed, he said.

And yet teachers are crucial to learning. Driscoll noted that eighth graders whose teachers majored in math scored 9 points higher than other kids on this year's test.

The results are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, a series of federally funded achievement tests often referred to as the nation's report card.

Students are tested in nine subjects, but they are tested most often in math and reading; the next reading scores should be released next year. Generally, kids have been making more progress in math than in reading.

This year, on a 500-point scale, fourth-graders on average scored 240 in math, unchanged from two years ago. Eighth-graders on average scored 283, up from 281 two years ago.

Utah students were close to the national average, with fourth-graders scoring 240 and eighth-graders, 284. Utah was among 10 states that showed improved scores for eight-graders, but not fourth-graders.

The national scores put 39 percent of fourth-graders and 34 percent of eighth-graders at the proficient level, meaning they show the knowledge and skills they should have at that grade.

That, in turn, means that millions of kids are a long way off from meeting the goal of the No Child Left Behind law championed by George W. Bush, which is that every student can read and do math at their grade level by 2014.

Congress hopes to rewrite the law next year.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the results mean "the status quo isn't good enough."

"These NAEP results are a call to action for reforms that will prepare our students to compete in the global economy," Duncan said.