Welcome

As you may have noticed, I delayed delivery of my newsletter by one day. The purpose of the delay was to provide readers up-to-date information on Tuesday’s release of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results.

Bulletin Board

  • The John Locke Foundation is sponsoring a Citizen’s Constitutional Workshop on Saturday, November 12, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Kaplan Auditorium, Henderson County Library, in Hendersonville, N.C. Historian Dr. Troy Kickler and political science expert Dr. Michael Sanera will discuss "What would the Federalists and Anti-federalists say about the current political and economic crises?" The cost is $8.00 per participant, lunch included. Pre-registration is strongly suggested. For more information or to sign up for the event, visit the Events section of the John Locke Foundation website.

  • The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle-school and high-school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to the NC History Project website for further information.

  • Improve your love life. Visit JLF’s research newsletter archive.

CommenTerry

Since the early 1990s, North Carolina has participated in the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing program. Many consider NAEP, also called "The Nation’s Report Card," to be the "gold standard" of standardized testing.

Unlike state tests, NAEP tests allow us to compare North Carolina students with those in other states. Unfortunately, these tests are administered infrequently. A department within the U.S. Department of Education testsa representative sample of students in mathematics and reading every two years, while science, history, civics, and geography tests are administered every four years. Because of the nature of the sample, NAEP cannot provide data on individual school districts, only states. Further, only students in fourth and eighth grades are tested on most subjects.

Since 2000, North Carolina’s math scale scores — a range of scores from 0 to 500 — have exceeded the national average. The 2011 scores were no different. Math scores remain above the national average, a testament to the generally strong math instruction provided by teachers in elementary and middle schools throughout North Carolina. Unfortunately, math scores have plateaued. For example, scores for eighth-grade math were not significantly different from 2007 or 2009 state results.

In the early 2000s, the state outscored the nation in reading, but in recent years, North Carolina’s reading scores have dipped below the national average. This year, there was a positive, albeit slight, rebound. Fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores now match the national average. Although fourth-grade reading scores were not significantly different from 2009, there was a statistically significant increase in eighth-grade reading scores.

How do these results compare with those from North Carolina’s ABCs of Public Education testing program? North Carolina education leaders readily admit that North Carolina’s definition of proficiency has never matched the high standards set by NAEP. Fewer than half of North Carolina’s students were proficient in math according to NAEP standards. On the other hand, North Carolina’s 2011 state test results indicated that 83.8 percent of fourth graders and 84.4 percent of eighth graders earned a proficient or advanced score in math.

Compared with the NAEP results, North Carolina state test results paint a much rosier picture of reading proficiency. For example, 71.6 percent of fourth graders and 69.8 percent of eighth graders scored at or above proficient on state tests. Approximately one-third of fourth- and eighth-grade North Carolinians scored at the proficient or advanced level on the NAEP reading test.

In a typical year, the debate over what constitutes "proficiency" would have taken center stage, but this year has been anything but typical. The new Republican leadership of the NC General Assembly reduced state appropriations to public schools, a practice initiated by their Democratic counterparts three years ago. As a result, well-funded public school advocacy organizations, along with bitter state education officials, warned that three years of "draconian" budget cuts would produce widespread famine, pestilence, and infanticide. (OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration.)

The education establishment did spend months complaining that our schools would not have the resources to educate our children adequately. North Carolina’s NAEP scores suggest otherwise. Perhaps that is why there was no mention of the state budget in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s press release on the 2011 NAEP results. Just a hunch.

Random Thought

"Plateaued" is one of my favorite words because it has four vowels in a row. "Obsequious" is not far behind.

Facts and Stats

Click here for a larger version of the table above.

Mailbag

I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].

Education Acronym of the Week

NAEP — National Assessment of Educational Progress

Quote of the Week

"These test scores show that we have made real progress but still have more work to do to meet my goal of ensuring that every child has a chance to succeed in a career, in a two- or four-year college or in technical training. We continue to move kids forward in North Carolina. Our high school graduation rate is higher than ever, and today’s scores in math and reading are going up as we invest in Career and College: Ready, Set, Go!"

— Governor Bev Perdue, "NC NAEP Math Scores Show State’s Students Above The National Average In Mathematics, At The National Average In Reading," NC DPI press release, November 1, 2011.

Click here for the Education Update archive.