Report reveals Asian American 8th graders outpacing peers in reading and math

Another interesting study:

Contrary to the perception that 8th-grade achievement is stagnating, a new analysis by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) finds upward trends in reading and math test scores in most states.

Progress is strongest in math, where every state with sufficient data made gains in the percentage of 8th grade students reaching the advanced level and all but one of these states showed gains at the proficient level. In most of these states, however, gaps have widened between lower- and higher-achieving subgroups of 8th graders at the advanced level in math.

The report, State Test Score Trends Through 2008-09, Part 3: Student Achievement at 8th Grade, is the third in a series of CEP reports on test score trends between the 2002 and 2009 school years. This report examines 8th grade trends at three achievement levels: basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced, and tracks changes in achievement gaps by race, ethnicity, gender and income.

The analysis draws on data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia but focuses on the 43 states with three or more years of comparable test data. Individual state profiles are available for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. CEP chose the 8th grade for its middle school analysis because it has longer trend lines than grades 6 and 7, and because it is the grade tested for other national and international assessments. For the first time, CEP also looks at gaps between student subgroups performing at the advanced level at grade 8.

"It's widely perceived that students in the middle grades are doing poorly. If that were true, we would expect to see flat scores and little progress when compared with elementary or high schools," said Jack Jennings, CEP's president and CEO. "To the contrary, more states showed gains at grade 8 than showed gains at grade 4 and high school."

--------------------

Center on Education Policy Analysis of 8th-Grade Achievement Finds Improvement in Most States; Widening Gaps at Advanced Level

Report reveals Asian American 8th graders outpacing peers in reading and math

The report is available for free at www.cep-dc.org.