ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610140045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
SLIGHT IMPROVEMENTS have been made in math and science, while reading and writing skills remain similar to students' in the 1970s.
Students are earning slightly higher marks in science and math, but their reading and writing scores are virtually unchanged over the past decade or more, an analysis of the latest ``Nation's Report Card'' finds.
Graph lines depicting national achievement in math and science inch upward from the early 1980s, but are flat between 1992 and 1994, according to the study released Friday. Reading scores have not changed much since the early 1970s, the report says. Writing scores in 1994 were either about the same are lower than in 1984.
``In reading, even though we've kind of performed at the same level, there is slight, turtle-level progress,'' said Pascal Forgione Jr., commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
In science, math and reading, about 31,000 students were tested at ages 9, 13 and 17. In writing, students in grades four, eight and 11 were tested.
The study says:
* Students in all three age groups showed declines or only steady progress in science in the 1970s, but have since improved.
* Math scores that have been down or stable in the 1980s appear to be on an upward trend.
* Reading scores have changed only minimally since the early 1970s.
* The writing skills of fourth-graders have been stable since 1984 and the average score for 11th graders has declined slightly, but eighth-graders' scores dropped off sharply between 1992 and 1994.
Deputy Education Secretary Marshall Smith said the trend data cover a time when the poverty rate for children rose from 15 percent in 1970 to 21 percent in 1994, and the percentage of single-parent families doubled to 24 percent. The test results showed some improvement even though the support system for children has weakened, he said.
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