Senator Kennedy managed to use the occasion to condemn spending on the Iraq war, while President Bush went past just lauding positive outcomes and suggested that the results are "outstanding," and that they "confirm that No Child Left Behind is working." And predictably, many lawmakers and advocacy groups used the scores in defense of their own pet NCLB reauthorization ideas.
The media was also divided about the message with the Washington Post running the headline "'Nation's Report Card' Shows Improvement," while the New York Times proclaimed "Scores Show Mixed Results for Bush Education Law."
For me the bottom line is that it looks like scores are improving slowly but steadily in most areas. While I think the results fall significantly short of "outstanding," it seems like we are generally moving in a good direction, but not getting there as quickly as we all want and certainly haven't made enough progress on narrowing the achievement gap. But the fact that scores are moving in the right direction is important and should be recognized.
Whether the gains are directly attributable to NCLB is another question, and NCLB foes FairTest and the AFT make a reasonable point that scores rose fastest from 2000 to 2003 in most areas. It's important to remember that NAEP is a blunt measurement tool that tests discrete groups of students (as opposed to tracking individual student growth over time), and tying progress on the test directly to any specific reform is at best, educated guesswork.
NAEP plays its most important role as a national educational barometer. And the barometer is continuing to gradually rise. It's good news, but not time to put the umbrellas away yet.
By Guestblogger Margie Yeager
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