However, it couldn’t escape the data’s distressing conclusion: American children can’t read, and they can’t do math. (A mere 30% of American eighth graders scored “proficient” or better in reading. Twenty-eight percent were proficient in math.)
The NAEP spills a lot of ink on “trends” — it’ll spin the numbers as “not as bad” by suggesting “at least this community of children over here is ‘doing better’ than those kids over there” or that the children are doing “better than they were in (insert carefully chosen past year).” That information can be helpful when strategizing how to improve, but it also obfuscates the central problem: American children are in trouble, and what we’re doing isn’t working.
So, how do we really help them?
Many of us will hear this distressing news and find ourselves tempted to retreat to our pet…
