Texas bests nation on testing gap

Educators are “still mulling over the results of national standardized test scores released last month, which showed an unusually clear national trend: While there have been some slight improvements in elementary and middle school math scores, the rate of gain is slowing. Meanwhile, reading scores are stagnant. These results contrast sharply with the scores of many states' own standardized tests, which purport to show clear gains. Already, some have pointed to this gap as evidence that the No Child Left Behind law, the president's plan to make states set standards and show annual academic improvement, isn't working. In a narrow sense, the critics are right: The gap is indeed evidence that many states are still using tests that are too easy, and they have not faced up to the genuinely difficult challenge of improving their schools. But the gap does not negate the value of using standards and high-stakes testing to improve student performance. The gap has also set off a discussion of what, if anything can be done at the national level to help states raise their students' achievement levels. Some are advocating the setting of national standards, a proposition that sounds nice in theory but seems politically impossible in practice. Standardized math and reading tests are, by themselves, not sufficient to improve American education. But without a recognition that higher standards are needed, improvement isn't even possible.”But by September 26th of 2007, (between 2005 and 2007), Everything has been change a little, as Michelle De La RosaExpress-News Staff Writer point out that "Students across the country are doing better than ever in reading and math, but Anglo students are still achieving at higher levels in those subjects than minorities, with Hispanics showing the least progress. Nationally, the gap in academic performance between Hispanic and Anglo students has seen little change, and it actually widened in math at the elementary school level."