News
By Max Hall
|
February 27, 2007
The National Center for Education Statistics recently released a study that shows a nationwide decrease in high school seniors' reading proficiency since 1992.
The study, titled "The Nation's Report Card," examined transcripts from a sample of 21,000 high school seniors from 900 schools across the country and compared them to students' performances on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The NAEP test is "a broad-stroke snapshot based on what experts believe students should know and do in a particular subject," said Stephanie Germeraad, National Assessment Governing Board public affairs specialist.
The study shows that the percentage of high school seniors reading at or above the level designated "proficient" has fallen from 40 percent in 1992 to 35 percent in 2005.
"The bottom line that we found was that while it appears that high school students seem to be doing all the right things in school, [such as] taking tougher courses, getting better grades and earning more credits during their time in high school, there is not a corollary increase in NAEP scores for 12th-graders," Germeraad said.
The study also observed what Germeraad called "lackluster" mathematics scores.