A Preliminary Analysis of Atlanta’s Performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress

Authors

  • Lawrence C. Stedman State University of New York at Binghamton

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v2i9.182354

Keywords:

Assessment, Student Achievement, Testing, Student Performance, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Atlanta, National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, Urban Schools, Cheating, Test Tampering, Standardized Testing, Accountability

Abstract

The Atlanta Public Schools system has been rocked by a series of reports documenting widespread cheating on the Georgia state tests.  Its reputation, and that of its leaders, has come into question.  In response, former superintendent Hall asserts that, despite any cheating, the city’s students made “real and dramatic” progress during her tenure and cites the district’s trends on NAEP as part of her evidence (Hall, 2011). In this report, I analyze Atlanta’s performance on NAEP during the 2000s to assess this contention. I use diverse indicators:  district trends, national comparisons, grade equivalents, and percentages of students achieving proficiency. My preliminary assessment is that Atlanta’s progress has been limited and, in many cases, slowed. In spite of a decade of effort, Atlanta’s students still lag 1-2 years behind national averages and vast percentages do not even reach NAEP’s basic level. Less than a fourth of its 4th and 8th graders achieve proficiency, a key national goal; in some subjects and grades, it is as few as a tenth. At current rates, it will take from 50 to 110 years to bring all students to proficiency. Such findings raise profound questions about current approaches to school reform, including No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.  The emphasis on targets and testing is failing and has contributed to cheating across the nation. More fundamentally, it has greatly distorted teaching and undermined authentic learning.  While test tampering is a serious problem, we need to re-conceptualize what we mean by cheating.  Every day, test-driven, bureaucratically controlled institutions are cheating tens of millions of students out of a genuine education. That is the real scandal.

Author Biography

Lawrence C. Stedman, State University of New York at Binghamton

LAWRENCE C. STEDMAN is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the State University of New York at Binghamton. His research interests include historical and contemporary achievement trends; federal policy and school reform; and the transformation of the high school in the 20th century.

 

Downloads

Published

2011-09-01

Issue

Section

Special Report