Gap in scores puts standards to test

Amy Hetzner reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

About 70% to 85% of Wisconsin students were considered proficient or better on the state's reading and math tests for the 2005-'06 school year. Yet only 33% to 40% of the state's fourth- and eighth-graders scored at least proficient on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress in those subjects, according to the study by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. ...

A Fordham study of the 2005 federal scores found that while 19 states had reported gains by their eighth-graders on state-administered reading tests, only three showed any progress on the federal test.