ONLY 10% OF BLACKS PROFICIENT IN NAEP ,43% WHITES

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30% NAEP PROFICIENT, 10% BLACK, 43% WHITE. 1% BLACK IN 1990
z75\clip\2004\02\neap04.txt
"Thirty-two percent of fourth-graders and 29 percent of eighth-graders
hit at least the proficient mark in math this year, which reflects
significant improvement since 2000.  Only 10 percent of black
fourth-graders scored at the proficient level or higher. That?s a
significant increase from 1 percent in 1990, but it trails white
students, 43 percent of whom scored at least at the proficient level
this year." [30-40% proficient is about same as tougher state tests]
Math scores jump on nation's report card
By Fredreka Schouten | Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON ? Math scores of elementary and middle school students shot
up to their highest levels in more than a decade this year on an
influential national test.

But reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress
showed little change from last year, and fewer than a third of
students tested this year in reading and math were considered
proficient in those subjects ? defined as solid academic performance
at each grade level.

Still, some experts heralded the math gains of fourth- and
eighth-graders as a sign that a decade-old push to change math
instruction has taken hold in the nation?s classrooms. The new
approach emphasizes problem-solving skills over basic math skills.

The national test also focuses heavily on problem solving, and some
educators warn that the results do not prove that students? ability to
multiply, divide and perform other basic math functions has improved.

Policy-makers say boosting math skills is key to U.S. competitiveness
in an increasingly high-tech world.

The results released Thursday also showed a modest shrinking of the
gap in math achievement between non-Hispanic white students and their
black and Hispanic peers, a problem that has bedeviled public schools
for decades.

?This is an important turning point in American educational history,?
Education Secretary Rod Paige said. ?We have proof that all children
indeed can learn ? no matter the color of their skin or their ethnic
heritage or their poverty situation.?

The results of the NAEP, also known as the nation?s report card, took
on new importance this year as public schools scramble to carry out a
federal school-reform law. The No Child Left Behind law requires
states to administer their own annual reading and math tests in grades
three through eight.

It also mandates that all 50 states participate in the national test
for the first time. That allows the public to compare the performance
of large samples of students in each state.

States that perform poorly on the NAEP will not face formal
consequences, but they risk public embarrassment if they claim gains
on their own tests that aren?t backed up on the federal exams.

On the national test, 77 percent of fourth-graders performed at least
at the basic level in math this year. That?s up from 65 percent in
2000, the last time students took the national math test. Nearly seven
in 10 eighth-graders scored at the basic level or higher, up from 63
percent three years earlier.

Basic is defined as partial mastery of a subject. Federal
policy-makers want students to achieve proficiency, a much higher
standard. Thirty-two percent of fourth-graders and 29 percent of
eighth-graders hit at least the proficient mark in math this year,
which reflects significant improvement since 2000.

Despite gains among minority students, large gaps in math performance
persist. Only 10 percent of black fourth-graders scored at the
proficient level or higher. That?s a significant increase from 1
percent in 1990, but it trails white students, 43 percent of whom
scored at least at the proficient level this year.

In reading, nearly a third of students in grades four and eight met
the proficient standard, virtually unchanged from 2002, the last time
students took the national reading test.

Experts say students seem to be doing better in math than reading
partly because of a dramatic increase in the number of children from
immigrant families who are just learning to speak English.

In addition, students tend to learn math almost exclusively in school,
said John Stevens, who directs the Texas Business and Education
Coalition and sits on the national board that oversees the federal
test.

?But reading development depends ? on what happens in school and what
happens at home,? he said.

This year?s reading scores show schools should give students a greater
grounding in vocabulary, phonics and comprehension, and spend a
greater part of each school day on reading, said Timothy Shanahan, a
professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a
reading expert.

?The reading scores in the United States haven?t gone up significantly
in 30 years,? Shanahan said. ?Our kids are graduating from school with
1971 reading skills.?

Advocates of math reforms say the test results released Thursday show
that a shift to a more problem-solving approach ? and away from
memorizing rules and mastering basic skills such as multiplication ?
is working.

?Don?t expect the math that your kids are studying to be like the math
you know,? said Johnny Lott, a University of Montana math professor
and president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

About a decade ago, his group pushed national standards that
emphasized a more conceptual approach to math. That approach also
requires students to tackle more geometry and statistics and to spend
more time on math each day.

?In the not-too-distant past, all kids did in grade school was study
arithmetic,? Lott said.

Today, students might use rubber bands on a peg board to sort through
fraction problems, said Pam Robbins, a math teacher at Skyview School,
a K-8 public school in Prescott, Ariz.

Tom Loveless, who oversees education research at the Brookings
Institution, said the NAEP test also is geared toward a more
problem-solving approach. And he worries that students? basic math
skills are suffering.

?I?m not sure that because you do well on the NAEP, that means that
you know fundamental mathematics,? Loveless said.

On the Web:

Reading and math results from the National Assessment of Educational
Progress.

Parent-friendly guide to the math approach favored by the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Web site favored by groups who prefer a back-to-basics approach to
math instruction. -> LINK TO MATHEMATICALLY CORRECT! YEAH!

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