More Details: DC + National NAEP Reading Scores

Some readers have asked for some more details on the recently-released NAEP reading scores. I have made two graphs and two tables that might provide what they want, although you can also look it all up for yourself if you go to this web page. Keep in mind that as far as I can tell, NAEP has still not released the DCPS-only reading scores for 2009, or for that matter those of any other large city, on its Trial Urban District Analysis (TUDA) pages. So this data combines the charter schools as well as the regular public schools, and as far as I can tell, there is no way for a layperson such as myself to disentangle the two.

In any case, here is a table showing how fourth-graders in DC and in the nation as a whole did, separately, and compared with each other, over the past 18 years:

Next, a graph of just the gap – that is, how far apart the DC and national scores are and have been over the past 18 years. As you can see, DC students have been catching up fairly steadily since 1998, which is good. But wait – Michelle Rhee didn’t start mis-managing DC public schools until 2007! If she’s such a savior, how can that be?

Next, a table showing the same sort of thing for the 8th grade, from 1998 to 2009:

And, finally, a graph showing the last column in the table above. That is, it shows whether DC students are catching up with the nation as a whole. The answer is yes, but not as quickly as the 4th graders, and there wasn’t any change in the last two years.

Bonus: I guess that Tom Toles is essentially attacking me and everybody else who doesn’t much like our Rhee-ly incompetent and un-Rhee-pentant serial fibber Chancellor in his cartoon today. How many errors can you find in this editorial cartoon?