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April 4, 2025
How One State Improved Its NAEP Scores
…through school. This cannot continue to be the case. We must go back to teaching foundational skills in math and place a greater emphasis on mathematical fluency. Society talks about…
March 31, 2025
Reimagining Federal Education R&D: DARPA for Education
…work to improve student achievement is harder. I once estimated that only about 15 percent of the math interventions the Institute of Education Science (IES) supported over many years were…
March 28, 2025
Cracking the Code Behind Dismal 8th Grade Reading Scores
…or materials. A recent RAND research survey of teachers in grades 3-8 found that 44 percent of their students “always or nearly always experience difficulty” reading the content of their instructional materials….
March 20, 2025
To Transform K-12 Education, the Trump Administration Should Measure What Matters
…states saw a decrease in scores from 2019 to 2024 in 8th-grade math. Tennessee, the sole exception, showed no change at all. To help analyze results, NAEP is legally required to collect…
March 19, 2025
What Can We Learn from Louisiana’s Progress in K–12 Education?
…the National Assessment Governing Board. Louisiana, however, is an outlier: It was one of only two states that experienced growth over its pre-pandemic levels in fourth-grade reading and math, and it…
March 12, 2025
Why Alabama Needs The Success Sequence
…family stability (the share of teens raised in an intact family). This matters because states with higher levels of stability have better outcomes for children, such as higher educational attainment and…
March 10, 2025
Many Children Left Behind: The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress Results Indicate a Five-Alarm Fire
…“Students reaching [proficiency] have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real world situations, and analytical skills appropriate to the subject matter.”3 For example,…
February 7, 2025
Low-Performing Students Fall Farther Behind the Pack
…including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real-world situations, and analytical skills appropriate to the subject matter.” Grade 4 students reaching the proficient level should be able to describe…
January 24, 2025
Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends
…assessments gauge reading and math for ages nine and 13 from 1978 to 2022. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assesses science and math for grades four…
January 24, 2025
Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends
…assessments gauge reading and math for ages nine and 13 from 1978 to 2022. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assesses science and math for grades four…