From guest blogger Diane Ravitch, a Fordham board member and research professor at NYU:
I respectfully disagree with the Fordham view on the TIMSS results, especially the conclusion that the small gains posted by 8th grade students in math are "noteworthy."??The gains registered over the past four years are actually small, only four points.
The gains posted by 8th graders are certainly not a vindication??of No Child Left Behind's testing regime. Eighth-graders registered a 12-point gain in math from 1995-2003, before the imposition of NCLB testing. They posted a 4-point gain from 2003-2007. The students who were tested by TIMSS in 2007 had been subject to NCLB annual tests in every year from third grade onward, yet their scores did not show a dramatic improvement. If anything, the gains were no greater (and possibly smaller) than those registered pre-NCLB.
Also, I would point out that Minnesota showed dramatic gains on TIMMS not because of "new, more rigorous??standards," but because of that state's decision to??implement a coherent grade-by-grade curriculum in mathematics. William Schmidt took the lead in developing that curriculum??and deserves to bask in glory for what he has done for the children of Minnesota. That is the most important lesson of 2007 TIMSS for the United States.