Urban Schools Continue Test-Score Gains, Report Finds

Students in urban school districts have made steady gains on state tests in the past four years, in many cases outpacing their states’ average rates of improvement, a study issued last week concludes.

The report, released March 21 by the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington-based advocacy group for urban districts, found that in big-city school districts, students improved faster in mathematics than they did in reading, and that 4th graders posted bigger gains than did 8th graders.

The group’s sixth annual “Beating the Odds” report says that the proportion of 4th graders scoring at or above proficiency in math increased by 14 percentage points from 2002 to 2005—from 44.5 percent of those students to 58.5 percent. On reading, the proportion at or above proficient rose 11 points, from 43.3...