In spite of high-profile efforts to improve the reading skills of the USA’s poorest schoolchildren over the past several years, their reading abilities barely improved last year compared with 2007, results of a federally administered test show.<\/p>\n
Reading scores essentially didn’t budge in 2009, both for students overall and minority students, according to results issued Wednesday on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Fourth-graders’ scores were unchanged at 221 points on a 500-point scale, and those of eighth-graders rose just one point, from 263 to 264.<\/p>\n
Likewise, achievement gaps between white, African-American and Hispanic students changed only slightly since 2007, though in fourth grade, the difference between white and African-American students’ scores has tightened six points since 1992. Overall, though, average scores in both grades have risen just four points since then.<\/p>\n