Urban Districts Report Steady Academic Gains

Washington

The academic performance of students in urban districts continued to rise last year, a report issued last week shows.

More than half the 4th graders in the districts examined, it says, scored at or above the “proficient” level on state-mandated reading and mathematics tests for the first time since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law three years ago.

The study, “Beating the Odds V,” shows city districts making steady progress in the two subjects in the past few years, while narrowing performance gaps between students of various racial and ethnic groups. It is the fifth annual such analysis performed by the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington-based advocacy group for 65 of the...