Reading Test Scores Rebound After Reforms

Four years after a dip in test scores that prompted a flurry of reforms in reading instruction, the federal government reported Wednesday that fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders nationwide have posted significant gains in a new assessment of reading skills.

Federal officials said the new data show that students tested in 1998 were learning to read, on average, at a pace several months ahead of those tested in 1994. They acknowledged, however, that over the longer term scores have fluctuated only slightly.

Still, Latino and black students posted notable gains in the latest round of testing. And, remarkably, many children who were tested say that they are watching less television.

Experts were reluctant to specify the cause of the gains, other than perhaps a general renewal of interest in reading activism. There are many public and private initiatives to improve literacy around the country.

But just as crime statistics are influenced both by police techniques and socioeconomic factors, test scores can be swayed both by what teachers do and by what happens to children outside of school.

The Clinton administration depicted the new scores as good news of the highest order. Vice President Al Gore joined Education Secretary Richard W. Riley on Wednesday to praise the increase in test scores as “great progress,” to plug the Clinton administration’s education initiatives and even to quote a bit of Dr. Seuss.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go,” Gore said, with a nod to the late children’s author. It was the first time that a vice president has attended an announcement about national test scores.

For all their optimism, though, administration officials noted that the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress yielded some sobering facts about the nation’s literacy at a time of redoubled public efforts to improve reading instruction.

So-Called Nation’s Report Card

While scores rebounded from the disappointing 1994 results--the last time the so-called nation’s report card checked on reading--students mainly were making up lost ground. With the exception of an eighth-grade boost in scores, the new results are no better than those obtained from a 1992 test.

Moreover, 38% of fourth-graders tested in 1998 scored at a level called “below basic,” meaning that they failed to grasp the overall point of what they read and could not draw simple inferences. About one-third scored at merely a “basic” level of competence, about one-quarter at a higher “proficient” level and the rest as “advanced.”

In contrast to the cheers from Democrats such as Gore, Republicans such as Rep. Bill Goodling of Pennsylvania, who heads the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, sized up the scores as evidence that American children “are making little progress.”

Regardless of partisan interpretation, the statistics underscore the challenge faced by educators and politicians, such as California Gov. Gray Davis, who recently have promised to help all children learn to read adequately by the end of third grade.

The fourth-grade results are especially noteworthy, experts said, because they could reflect at least some of the progress made by students who were in the first grade in 1995 and just learning to read. That was a key year for reading reform.

California Cut Class Sizes

California, jolted by the announcement of comparatively poor reading scores in 1995, cut class size in elementary grades the following year. Teachers’ unions and many education researchers pressed for a return to “balanced” reading instruction, including more time spent on the letter-sounding technique known as phonics. President Clinton since then has also launched national initiatives to recruit reading tutors and cut class size.

One academic expert on reading said that the nation may still have to wait a few more years to see substantial improvement from students who are now beginning elementary school.

“It’s hard to turn around a whole country all at once,” said Robert E. Slavin, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who has launched a reading program called “Success for All.”

“If trends are positive, that’s a good thing. But just getting back to 1992 levels is nothing to cheer about. There’s still a very, very big job to be done,” he said.

There were no state-by-state statistics in the data released Wednesday. California will have to wait until March to learn how it stacks up against other states in fourth and eighth grades. However, the new data show that students in the Western region of the country, which includes California and Texas, generally scored lower than their counterparts from the Northeast and central states and just a bit better than those from the Southeast.

Nearly 500,000 Students Tested

Nearly 500,000 students across the country participated in the testing last year, for both nationwide and state-by-state assessment. The exam followed a format established in 1992 and 1994 to allow comparisons with those years. Students were each given 50 minutes to read selected passages and answer questions, both multiple-choice and written responses. Their scores were reported on a 500-point scale.

Among the findings made public Wednesday:

* Scores for fourth-graders rose to 217 in 1998, up three points from 1994. Scores for eighth-graders rose to 264, up four points, and scores for high school seniors rose to 291, up four points. It was the first across-the-board increase for all three grades in 30 years, officials said.

* Compared with 1992, however, the gains in fourth and 12th grades vanished. Only in eighth grade did the increase hold.

* Girls, once again, did better than boys in all grades. Male fourth-graders last year did better than male fourth-graders in 1994. But scores for male 12th-graders in 1998 lag behind those from 1992.

* White students on average did better than black, Latino and Native American students. Asian American and Pacific Islander students were on a par with Anglos in two of the three grades tested. Black students did better in 1998 in grades four and eight than they did in 1994. Latino 12th-graders did better in 1998 than they did four years ago.

While much attention has focused on methods of reading instruction, including the debate over phonics and the literature-intensive approach known as “whole language,” researchers cautioned that many factors outside the classroom can influence test scores. Children who come from impoverished homes in which parents did not attend college tend to do worse than those whose parents are well educated and well-to-do. Kids who are not fluent in English--a full quarter of California’s public school enrollment----also face significant hurdles.

On at least one vital question of behavior outside the classroom--whether kids at home are glued to the television set instead of picking up books--educators may be seeing signs of progress. The national assessment, which included a survey of TV-watching habits, found that 16% of fourth-grade students report watching six hours or more of television a day, down from 21% in 1994 and 20% in 1992. There was also a drop in the eighth grade. There was no indication of whether the youngsters are spending more time in front of computer or video-game screens.

While Riley applauded the apparent falloff in TV watching, he acknowledged that educators have far more work to do to raise the average reading score, now merely basic, to a level of proficiency.

“That is a bold goal and it’s a bold challenge,” Riley said. “I think we’re going to keep this trend moving in the right direction, and that’s what’s important.”