Tennessee edges toward the top half of states on the Nation’s Report Card, thanks to drops elsewhere
This week, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released results from its 2019 assessment. Called “The Nation’s Report Card,” NAEP is a nationwide education assessment administered by the federal government every other year to track student achievement. This year’s results revealed that while most states remained flat or declined in reading and math, Tennessee’s student scores at saw either no change, or some small improvement.
The Nation’s Report Card named early literacy as a nationwide challenge. Only 35% of Tennessee’s 4th graders are considered at or above NAEP proficiency in reading, the same as the national average.
The Scarlett Family Foundation recently released a data resource that focuses on specifically on early literacy in Metro Nashville Public Schools. Only 3 in 10 third grade MNPS students are reading on track, a number that has not moved in the last three years.
Chalkbeat Tennessee dives deeper into Tennessee’s results:
Tennessee elementary and middle school students improved or held steady on national tests this year while scores in many other states fell, lifting the Volunteer State’s national rankings to solidly in the middle of the pack, according to results released on Tuesday.
The state’s fourth-graders recovered losses from two years ago in math and maintained their reading scores. Meanwhile, eighth-grade scores in both subjects were up slightly but statistically flat for a third straight testing year going back to 2015 under the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP. The exam is given every two years to provide a snapshot of U.S. student achievement for the Nation’s Report Card.
With the showing, Tennessee defied national downward trends and edged closer to — but still fell short of — its ambitious goal of moving into the top half of states by 2019 under the strategic education plan developed five years ago under former Gov. Bill Haslam.
