In Schools, Bad = Good

originally published October 3, 2007

It seems that state school Superintendent Kathy Cox and her underlings at the Department of Education are living in an alternative universe where up is down, black is white, and failure is success. How else to explain the announcement made by the department in the last week of September about the latest National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores for Georgia’s public school students?

Each year, a random sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders from each state take the NAEP tests. The national exam is called the “Nation’s Report Card” and, according to education professionals, it provides a fair basis for comparing how students in one state do against those in another in terms of education performance.

The NAEP tests were given to fourth- and eighth-graders during the last academic year in the areas of math and reading. Here’s how Georgia students matched up: In mathematics, fourth-grade students were below the national average (an average scale score of 235 for Georgia compared to the national score of 239). Eighth-grade students were likewise below the national average (Georgia’s score was 275, the national average was 280).

In reading, fourth-grade students were slightly lower than national average (an average score of 219 in Georgia versus a national score of 220). Eighth-grade students were also below the national average (259 for Georgia compared to 261 nationally).

The margins were small, in some cases, but the test score performance of Georgia students was still less than the national average, which has been the case for several years now with NAEP scores. If you read the announcement released by the Department of Education, however, you would have come away with the mistaken impression that Georgia students had done better than students in every other state.

The news release was headlined, “NAEP Results Show Historic Gains; New Curriculum is Working.” The first paragraph proclaimed that “Georgia’s 4th graders are scoring at the national level in reading,” even though fourth-grade students actually scored slightly below the national average.

The release then included a comment from Cox that “These results are a clear indication that education in Georgia is on the right path…. We know that our new curriculum is setting high expectations for all of our students and those high expectations are paying off.” There are similar glowing statements about the achievements of Georgia students scattered throughout the news release. It isn’t until you get down to the 11th paragraph of the announcement that the Department of Education allows a little reality to slip through, acknowledging that Georgia’s 4th and 8th graders “still trail the nation” in their performance on the NAEP exams.

Cox and her agency, of course, are engaging in the time-honored public relations tactic of spinning. Everybody in politics does it and it’s hardly a crime. But it’s interesting to go back and read the announcements her office has released over the past few years when the latest NAEP scores have been disclosed.

In 2003, the Department of Education declared that the progress of the state’s students has been “encouraging.” In a conference call with reporters in 2005, Cox said that there are “things that we should be happy about and celebratory about” when discussing the NAEP results. In 2006, the department proclaimed that Georgia students were showing “significant gains” and making “significant improvement” on the NAEP exams.

Yes, everything is just peachy keen with our students, according to Supt. Cox and the Department of Education. And yet, despite all of these “encouraging” gains and improvements that the department lauds every year, Georgia’s students scores are still scoring below the national average on the NAEP exam.

We’re not doing so well in other national comparisons, either. On the SAT exam, which Gov. Sonny Perdue has said is the “gold standard” for measuring the performance of public school students, Georgia’s average score has ranked in the bottom 10 percent of the states each year that Perdue and Cox have been in office.

How can our education leaders continue to say that things are going just great when the actual scores show that Georgia in fact ranks very low in education performance? If you’re a parent with a kid in a public school, that has to be frustrating.

Tom Crawford

Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news site at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia.