U.S. High Schools Raise Grades, Don't Test Better (Paul Basken)

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U.S. high school students are showing no overall improvement on a nationwide achievement test, even as they take more challenging courses and earn higher grades.

By Paul Basken

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. high school students are showing no overall improvement on a nationwide achievement test, even as they take more challenging courses and earn higher grades, the U.S. Education Department reported.

Nationwide, 73 percent of 12th-grade students achieved a ``basic'' reading score in 2005, down from 80 percent in 1992, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a sampling test the government calls the ``nation's report card.'' Sixty-one percent scored at or above the basic level in math.

At the same time, 68 percent of high school graduates completed at least a ``standard'' curriculum, up from 59 percent in 2000, with the overall grade point average about one-third of a letter grade higher than in 1990, the department said in a report. The figures raise questions about the quality of the courses being taught at U.S. high schools, it said.

``If, in fact, our high school students are taking more challenging courses and earning higher grades, we should be seeing greater gains in test scores,'' U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in a statement. The results ``show that we have our work cut out for us,'' she said.

In May, NAEP said there were declines in science scores for high school students. Among 12th-graders, 54 percent were at or above the basic level in science in 2005, statistically similar to 2000 and a decline from 57 percent in 1996, the report said.