Tom Loveless, The Brookings Institution
November 2004
The annual Brown Center report is a must-read. Loveless reports, in no uncertain terms, that the past decade's improved NAEP math scores should be taken with a gigantic grain of salt. Why? Well, the fourth grade NAEP math test actually contains questions more appropriate for third graders, while the eighth grade test is geared toward . . . well, third graders. There's also a lot of what Loveless calls "false rigor" in NAEP, particularly in the "algebra" questions, which are often just dressed-up arithmetic exercises. NAEP is an essential tool, of course, and we should probably be glad for the recent upswing in scores. But we should also have a NAEP that assesses fourth and eighth graders according to the proper expectations. The second part of the Brown Center report is a broad survey of middle school math teachers' content training. They often turn out to have solid backgrounds in mathematics, but professional development programs are often superficial, focusing on too many topics at the expense of deepening teachers' core knowledge. Loveless recommends three sensible strategies: focus professional development on core topics, target teachers with weak math backgrounds and get them up to speed, and offer financial incentives. The last section of the report discusses the federal government's recently revamped Blue Ribbon Schools Program - a revamp occasioned in no small part by Loveless's 2000 indictment of said program. You can find this year's report here.