NAEP Results Show Math Gains, But 4th Grade Reading Still Flat

Gov. Robert Bentley is greeted by students at the W.S. Garrett Elementary School on Nov. 1 in Montgomery, Alabama. Bentley and state education officials visited the school to discuss the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

—Dave Martin/AP

Proficiency continues to be elusive goal

By Erik W. Robelen

The nation's 4th and 8th graders have inched up in mathematics, new test data show, but the results are more mixed in reading, with 4th grade scores flat compared with two years ago.

Overall, achieving proficiency in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress , known as "the nation's report card," remains an elusive goal for the majority of American students. Only about one-third reached that level or higher in reading and 8th grade math, the 2011 data show. At grade 4 math, the figure was slightly higher, at 40 percent.

When viewed from a long-term perspective, the nation has made "major improvements" in math achievement over the past two decades, but in reading, the growth has been "quite small," David P. Driscoll, the chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board , which sets policy for NAEP, said at an event last...