66% of Students Fail Reading Test in Half the States

America’s fourth and eighth graders are losing ground in their ability to read literature and academic texts, according to a rigorous national assessment released last week. The National Center of Educational Statistics, the research arm of the Department of Education, found that two out of three children did not meet standards for reading proficiency.

The national assessment found that in 2019 only 35 percent of fourth graders were proficient in reading down from 37 percent in 2017. In addition, only 34 percent of eighth graders were proficient in reading, down from 36 percent. Although math and science were also tested, about half of the questions were devoted to reading in the exam. Students were asked to determine when written evidence supported a particular claim and to distinguish between fact and opinion, among other tasks. Many could not.

Overall student progress in reading has stalled with the highest performers stagnating and the lowest-achieving students falling even further behind. What is worse is that the achievement gap in reading between high and low performers is widening. Although the top quarter of American students have improved their performance on the exam since 2012, the bottom 10th percentile lost ground, according to an analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics.

These dismal results reflect the performance of students who took the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, which is administered in the US by the Dept. of Education. The most recent PISA test was given to 600,000 15-year-olds in 79 education systems around the world and included both public and private school students. In the United States, a demographically representative sample of 4,800 students from 215 schools took the test, which is given every three years.

American students no longer rank at the top compared to other nations. The top performers in reading were four provinces of China — Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Also outperforming the United States were Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, Estonia, Canada, Finland and Ireland. The United Kingdom, Japan and Australia performed similarly to the United States. Among the countries that demonstrated improvement on the test were Portugal, Peru and Colombia. One bright spot for the US is that achievement gaps between native-born and immigrant students were smaller than such gaps in peer nations.

Analysis of the international test results show that differences in school quality affected the performance of American students less than it affected the performance of students in many other nations — meaning that in the United States, there is more achievement diversity within schools than across schools. Some of that may be attributed to open enrollment in some school districts. Nonetheless, within the schools, students from poor families generally lag behind those from more affluent families. Only 3% of children from poor families were top performers. That distinction went primarily to children from more well-off families, and families with professional parents.

While test scores have been declining for a decade, the rate of decline has accelerated under the watch of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The average eighth grade reading score declined in more than half of the states. The last time the test was given the average score in fourth-grade reading had declined in only 17 states. Math scores remained relatively flat in most states.

Policy could be a factor in the decline. Under DeVos, the emphasis has been on pushing charter schools over public schools which for many reasons, location being one and cost another, charter schools are often out of reach of many poor families with children. Charter schools, with higher budgets, can pay teachers more than public schools. In addition, the population of charter schools tends to have fewer discipline problems than lower income public schools, making it easier to recruit teachers.

It takes a dedicated and well-trained teacher to understand the problems children face when coming from a home with physical abuse, parents with addiction problems, or parents living below the poverty line. It does not mean those students are less intelligent than wealthier students, it means there is a lot going on in their lives that puts them behind. In addition, in poor homes, children are less likely to be read to at a very young age and studies show that makes a big difference in early childhood development.

The US has spent billions over the last 20 years trying to improve education. Yet, we are losing ground. One reason may be that teachers are not listened to enough. They are in the front lines but too many decisions are made without their input. Our retreat to a quasi-segregated educational system through charter schools is not helping either. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over the same way expecting a different result. Perhaps it is time to realize the veracity in that statement.