Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Only about one-third of seniors were rated proficient readers in test results released Thursday, a significant decrease from the same test two years earlier.
And fourth-graders and eighth-graders were even less likely than the seniors to qualify as ``good enough'' readers, although their scores held steady over two years.
The results are like ``a whack on the head,'' said William T. Randall, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board and Colorado education commissioner.
``This tells us what we already intuitively know,'' Randall said. ``Our reading is slipping.''
The test was given in early 1994. No specific explanation for seniors' score drop was offered, but members of the test's governing board said it's clear students don't do enough reading - at school or at home.
A survey accompanying the 1994 test found that, compared to seniors who took the 1992 test, students were less likely to read for fun on their own time, do assigned reading as homework, or be asked at school to discuss something they had read. Only 39 percent said they read 11 or more pages daily.
The decrease in National Assessment of Educational Progress scores comes just two months after Education Secretary Richard Riley pointed to slight increases in some test results and declared that U.S. education was ``at long last, turning the corner.''
In a statement Thursday, Riley expressed disappointment with the 1994 reading scores. ``We have a long way to go to equip our students with the tools they will need for success in the next century,'' he said.
Scores on other tests over the past decade have shown students improving in math and science - possibly as a result of school reform efforts of the 1980s - while barely holding steady in reading and writing.
by CNB