Atlanta students outgain other big cities in reading and math

Large cities…+14 points…+9 points

Nation…+8 points…+5 points

AVERAGE EIGHTH GRADE NAEP SCORES

Area…Math…Reading

Atlanta…267…255

Large cities…276…258

Nation…284…266

Source: The Nation’s Report Card: 2013 Trial Urban District Snapshot Report

Students in Atlanta’s public schools have made greater long-term progress in reading and math than their peers in most other major U.S. cities, but their test scores still lag behind state and national averages.

Atlanta topped a group of 10 large city school systems by recording the most substantial gains over the past decade in eighth grade math and fourth grade reading, according to results of The Nation’s Report Card released last week. In eighth grade reading, Atlanta tied with Los Angeles, and it trailed only the District of Columbia in fourth grade math progress.

“It has taken incremental improvements every year to make these overall significant improvements,” said Joe Blessing, director of testing and assessment for Atlanta Public Schools. “We do want to celebrate our success, but I don’t want anyone to think we’re in any way feeling content. We have a long way to go.”

The trend shows that Atlanta’s scores have steadily inched upward, improving faster than the rest of the country as a whole, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ Trial Urban District Snapshot Report.

Atlanta Public Schools’ efforts to improve literacy over the last decade created the fundamentals that allowed students to make consistent advances in both reading and math, said Michael Casserly, executive director for the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation’s largest urban school districts, including Atlanta.

He said Atlanta’s school system has raised instructional standards and emphasized higher quality teaching even as it has endured difficulties. Atlanta was caught up in the nation’s largest cheating scandal when state investigators accused 185 educators of being involved by changing students’ answers, giving them answers, pressuring teachers to cheat or failing to stop them.

The cheating occurred on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, which aren’t the same tests as those administered by NAEP.

“My sense is that the capacity that got built into the schools and classrooms was strong enough to sustain all of the upheaval the system has experienced over the last few years,” Casserly said. “There will always be naysayers, but these things don’t turn on a dime.”

While average scores are up overall, achievement gaps remain, according to scoring data.

Atlanta students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches — an indicator of low family income — were further behind their classmates in both grade levels and subjects than they were in 2003.

When categorized by race, wide gaps persist between the percentage of white students and black students who are considered proficient in reading or math. Proficiency means that students have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, and it’s the second-highest level of achievement on NAEP’s scale.

Although the scale of Atlanta students’ progress can be seen most clearly over time, they also performed better in 2013 than they did the last time the test was administered in 2011. Their fourth grade math scores jumped 5 points, while showing smaller gains in other grade levels and subject areas.

“Even though they’re small, they do indicate there was an improvement,” said Arnold Goldstein, program director for reporting in the assessment division of the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education. “In education generally, you don’t usually see a large amount of change over one or two years. It’s only over the long term that you see it.”

Testing results can be viewed online at http://nationsreportcard.gov/