In a majority of the 26 states that enroll the most American Indian or Alaska Native students, the proportion of such students who score at proficient levels in reading and math on state tests has increased since passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, according to a study released this month by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.
What’s more, Native American students in those states narrowed the gap separating them from higher-achieving racial and ethnic groups and, in some cases, increased an existing lead over those groups.
While the study looked at 26 states, only 19 had continuous data for three or four years in reading and 18 had continuous data for several years in math. The study examined test scores of 8th graders from the 2003-04 school year to the 2006-07 school year.
