Illinois scores nudge up, but state standing falls

WASHINGTON -- Elementary and middle school students made across-the-board gains this year in math and more modest progress in reading, national test results released Tuesday show.

Illinois scores edged slightly higher in reading and math. But math results trended better than reading. In both subjects, fourth-graders improved more than eighth-grade students, the other group tested.

Still, Illinois' gains did not keep pace with improvement reported nationwide.

Average scores among Illinois eighth-graders in reading and math surpassed or hung steady with the national norm. Fourth-graders slipped behind. This reverses earlier results that in 2003 ranked Illinois in the top third for math and reading nationwide.

The scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress will be scrutinized by policy makers and educators looking for signs of whether the No Child Left Behind law is working. The five-year-old initiative aims to get all kids doing math and reading at their proper grade level by 2014.

"We're making slow and steady progress in reading, and we're doing much better in math," Mark Schneider, the commissioner of the Education Department's research arm, said after reviewing the scores.

The national assessments, sometimes referred to as the nation's report card, provide a uniform way to compare student progress across state lines. The exam is given every two years.

Overall, math scores were up for fourth- and eighth-graders at every step on the achievement ladder. The results show:

• Thirty-nine percent of fourth-graders are proficient or better in math, up from 36 percent two years ago when the test was last given. In Illinois, the margin was 37 percent. Hitting the proficient mark is the goal, policy makers say.

• Nearly a fifth of the fourth-graders tested still cannot do basic-level work, such as subtracting a three-digit number from a four-digit one. But scores are up in that part of the achievement spectrum since 2005.

• Among eighth-graders, 31 percent are proficient or better in math in Illinois and the nation, up 2 percentage points from last time.

• Seventy-one percent performed at the basic level or better, up from 69 percent two years ago.

In reading, fourth-graders scored higher than they did two years ago. But eighth-grade reading scores only moved up a little. The results show:

• About a third of fourth-graders in Illinois and the country, on average, were proficient or better at reading. Kids working at that level could identify a literary character's problem and describe how it was solved.

• Sixty-seven percent of fourth-graders can do a minimum of basic-level work, up from 64 percent last time.

• There was no increase in eighth-graders working at proficient or advanced levels. About a third can do that level of work, meaning they can identify the literary genre of a story, for example.

• Seventy-four percent of eighth-graders can read at a basic level, up just 1 percentage point from 2005.

Darvin Winick, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests, said it was discouraging that eighth-grade reading did not show more progress. The results come on the heels of flat reading scores for high-school seniors.

"We need to look into reading deficiencies in middle and high schools in depth. That should be the next national imperative," Winick said.

The math scores trended upward since the early 1990s. Some educators say it's easier for teachers to affect math scores. Math is almost entirely a school-based subject whereas some children get extra exposure to reading in their homes.

The No Child Left Behind law aims to shrink the gap in math and reading scores between racial and ethnic minorities and their white peers.

The reading achievement gap between black and white fourth-graders nationwide narrowed this year, as did the gap between black and white eighth-graders in math. The gaps in other grades, as well as those between whites and Hispanics, held steady.

In Illinois, low-income students scored anywhere from 23 to 30 points lower than children who did not qualify for a free or reduced price lunch. Still, Illinois was one of three states where the academic gap between low- and higher-income students narrowed between 2003 and 2007 in fourth-grade reading.

"Yes, we're headed in the right direction, but not quickly enough," said Kati Haycock of The Education Trust in Washinton, D.C.

States set their own policies regarding the percentage of special education and limited English speakers who participate in the national assessments.

Overall nationally, however, more kids with disabilities and limited English skills have been taking the tests in recent years.

Slow, steady progress

Illinois students posted modest gains this year on the only nationwide standardized test, where potential scores range from 0 to 500.

2007 2005 2003

Reading

Grade 4 219 216 216

Grade 8 263 264 266

Math

Grade 4 237 233 233

Grade 8 280 278 277

Source: National Center for Education Statistics