8th Grade Scores Inch Upward on National Science Assessment

Fewer than one-third of American 8th graders are proficient in science, but most students are improving, and achievement gaps are closing between students who are black or Hispanic and their white peers, a special administration of the test known as "the nation's report card" shows.

The National Assessment Governing Board released findings last week on earth, life, and physical sciences mastery on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. The average 8th grade score rose from 150 in 2009 to 152 last year; that's a statistically significant increase, but well below 170, proficiency on the test's 300-point scale.

"We would like to see more students in the proficient and advanced levels," Cornelia Orr, the executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, the independent Washington-based board that sets policy for the NAEP, said in a briefing with reporters last week. "I think there is still a lot of work to be done, but it's good to see the needle moving...