Students from Atlanta Public Schools improved more on a key national exam than test-takers from other large cities, evidence that the district has made academic gains despite reports of widespread cheating, said school officials.
Results released Wednesday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation's report card, showed that since 2002 Atlanta students made more progress in three out of four tested subjects than other urban school districts that took the exam. Despite the improvement, Atlanta's math scores still trail other large cities.
The scores are significant because they offer another -- and some say more valid -- indication of whether Atlanta's schools are improving. The district's state test scores have been called into question after investigators uncovered cheating on state standardized exams that could have gone on as long as 10 years.
Former Superintendent Beverly Hall, who retired in June, has repeatedly pointed to NAEP scores as evidence the district improved under her leadership. The exam is said to be difficult to tamper with because NAEP employees handle the test, it is only given to a sample of students and there are safeguards in place to prevent cheating.
"The students don’t even know which subject they’re going to be tested on until they get their test booklets and school staff do not handle the materials before or after the assessments," said Arnold Goldstein, program director for the assessment division at the National Center for Education Statistics.
Superintendent Erroll Davis, who took over after Hall retired, said the latest results are proof the district is making gains.
"[Parents] can trust this data," he said. "And what they can take away is that the efforts of our faculty are bearing fruit."
The NAEP is given to fourth- and eighth-graders across the country and is one of the few exams offering a snapshot of how students compare from state to state and district to district. The test was given earlier this year to about 422,000 fourth-graders and 343,000 eighth-graders nationwide. Results are available by state, although scores for 21 urban districts including Atlanta are also released publicly.
Since 2002, Atlanta students improved more than other participating districts in eighth-grade math and reading and fourth-grade reading. In fourth-grade math, the district improved but not as much as Boston, Washington and San Diego.
Despite Atlanta's improvement, the district still lags behind other large cities in math and is average in reading. Detroit students scored the lowest in every tested subject, while students in Charlotte, Austin and Hillsborough County, Fla., (Tampa) scored at the top.
Parents in Atlanta have questioned the district's true progress since a state investigation released this summer revealed cheating at 44 schools. But Buckhead parent and school advocate Julie Salisbury said the new scores show the majority of APS teachers are doing the right thing.
"It's a travesty that 140 of our 3,000 educators may have taken a low road and cheated, but these scores demonstrate our students can achieve with the best of them across the country and that our incredible teachers are on the job," she said.
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