ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997 TAG: 9702280092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
American students are improving in math, the Education Department said Thursday, but tests of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders found most know no more of the subject than the basics.
President Clinton seized on the results Thursday to push for voluntary tests of all eighth-graders starting in 1999. Bothered that American children lag behind their counterparts elsewhere, the administration also wants schools to teach algebra in the eighth grade rather than waiting for high school.
``The scores are getting better, but they also show us why every child should be tested based on these standards,'' Clinton told business leaders. The test results released Thursday relied on a sampling of students who took different parts of a long, involved test. Individual scores were not assigned.
Results from the tests given last year offered some encouragement, although almost four eighth-graders out of 10 still failed to reach the basic skill level. All students did better than in 1992 and 1990, the last two years of testing under the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The assessment takes periodic measures of achievement in basic subjects. It is sponsored by the Education Department but run independently.
Some results:
* Fourth-graders nationwide scored 224 on the test's scale of 0 to 500. That's up from 220 in 1992. Sixty-four percent scored at or above the basic level, up from 59 percent. Basic meant a score of 214 to 248. Twenty-one percent were proficient, and 2 percent were advanced. Virginia scores increased from 221 to 223.
Fourth-graders with basic skills could probably measure lengths beyond 12 inches, and solve a math problem using money to show they understand decimal places.
* Eighth-graders scored 272, up from 268 four years earlier. Sixty-two percent scored at or above basic, up from 58 percent. Basic required a score of 262 to 298. Twenty-four percent were rated proficient, and 4 percent were advanced.
An eighth-grader with basic skills could probably look at a rectangle partitioned into squares and convert shaded squares into a fraction of the rectangle.
* Twelfth-graders averaged 304, up from 299. Sixty-nine percent of 12th-graders scored at basic or above, up from 64 percent. Basic was a score of 288 to 335. Sixteen percent were proficient or above; 2 percent were advanced. Virginia scores increased from 268 to 270.
A 12th-grader with basic skills could probably find the volume of a sphere, which would require knowing a formula (four-thirds times pi times the radius cubed) and the value of pi, 3.14159. Some could select which one of several graphs shows an algebraic function: a fixed relationship between two variables, x and y.
The mathematics report card also found:
* Boys and girls scored no differently in the eighth and 12th grades, although fourth-grade boys scored higher than girls.
* Scores improved for white students in all three grades between 1990 and 1996. Black and Hispanic students posted increases in the fourth and 12th grades, but blacks, Hispanics and American Indians still lagged behind whites.
* The more education the parents had, the higher their children scored.
* Students at religious and other private schools did better.
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