Kentucky’s new federal test scores are flat: Part 2

The National Assessment of Educational Progress just released the 2011 results for math and reading for all 50 states.

Certainly, the 2011 reading and math results for Kentucky don’t look good.

We already took a first look at reading. Now, let’s see what the new NAEP Math Report Card shows for the fourth and eighth grade.

G4 Math Map, Change from 2009, All Studs

G8 Math Map, Change from 2009, All Studs

In the fourth grade, eight states and Washington, DC made statistically significant improvements, but Kentucky was flat.

In the eighth grade 12 states improved noticeably, but again Kentucky was not among them.

In fact, just like for reading, performance nationwide wasn’t terribly impressive.

It should be noted that the raw published scores for Kentucky do show a small rise over time, but the statistical sampling errors in the NAEP make it impossible to know for certain that these small score rises are really valid.

Never the less, as I warned in my earlier post, just watch for the usual, statistically inappropriate claims to flow that Kentucky made a little more progress. The truth is that NAEP tells us in both fourth grade and eighth grade mathematics, no-one who understands the NAEP would support such a claim.

There is a whole lot more to discuss, like achievement gaps, so stay tuned.