NAEP Results: Bold Reforms Yield Big Returns
The National Assessment of Educational Progress results released today teach us two very valuable lessons about education reform. The first is that real change is hard work. The second is that hard work can bring about real change.
The big winners in today’s NAEP results are the schoolchildren in the District of Columbia and the state of Tennessee, whose NAEP gains over just 2 years are equivalent to the gains that their national peers made, on average, in 10 years.
We do not think these results are random. Both states share an approach to education reform that emphasizes higher expectations for teachers and students. Both started their efforts several years ago and ramped those policies up over time. Both have remained strong in the face of intense political opposition.
Perhaps most important, DC and Tennessee show that all children can learn if the system has high expectations for them and if it ensures that they have effective teachers. The district’s student population is overwhelmingly disadvantaged. Tennessee’s growth for African American students, when averaged across all four NAEP tests, was even stronger than its growth for other students.
Make no mistake; DC and Tennessee still have a lot of work to do. DC is still in the bottom tier of states on NAEP and Tennessee is just shy of the national average. But as models for what can be accomplished by bold change and stick-to-it-ive-ness, they stand head and shoulders above the rest of the nation.