WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | SC students' math scores up, reading unchanged on national test

SC students' math scores up, reading unchanged on national test

(Columbia-AP) Nov. 13, 2003 - South Carolina students have improved their math scores, but reading scores remain unchanged on a nationwide test of math and reading skills.

The scores were released Thursday on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as "The Nation's Report Card." All states were required to participate in NAEP testing this year or lose federal funding.

South Carolina Superintendent of Education says Inez Tenenbaum, "For the first time ever most South Carolina NAEP scores are at the national average, and I think this is big big news. Our students continue to improve at a faster rate than the nation as a whole."

Math scores for South Carolina fourth-graders were up by 16 points at 236 and ahead of the national average of 234. The average rate of increase nationwide was ten points. Average scores for South Carolina eighth graders were up by 12 points, better than the national increase of four, to 277, one point above the national average.

Reading scores for eighth-graders remained the same at 258, below the national average of 261. The nationwide score decreased by two points. Fourth-graders improved reading scores by one point to 215 to match national scores. Nationwide fourth graders' reading scores decreased by one point.

About 2500 students were tested nationwide. See sample NAEP questions>>

Nationally the NAEP shows some 77 percent of fourth graders are meeting basic math standards now, a jump of 12 percentage points in three years. Sixty-eight percent of eighth graders performed above basic. The test also shows minorities are starting to close performance gaps in math.

In reading student performance nationally remained steady. While there's praise for the advances in math, some point out that students are still far from the national goal of 'proficient.' In both reading and math, only a third of students performed that well.

updated 12:06pm by Chris Rees