Md. test scores improving, but researchers unsure why

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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - More Maryland students are accomplishing the goals of No Child Left Behind, improving reading and math scores, but it is impossible to determine if that law is responsible, a new study shows.

The study, released this week and conducted by the Washington-based Center for Education Policy, is one of the most credible and comprehensive on No Child Left Behind, experts said, studying student achievement in the law’s first six years in every state.

In Maryland, the percentage of students that scored proficiently in reading and math improved steadily each year, according to the study.

Maryland black students’ math scores in elementary school and their reading scores at every level grew closer to white students’ achievement, the study shows. Black students’ math scores in middle school, however, grew worse; data was not available to determine high school math trends.

“All of us in education believe something like No Child Left Behind was needed, but we really worry about that being the only measure of success,” said Donna Wiseman, dean of the education school at the University of Maryland, College Park.

“How many students are taught by highly qualified teachers who are fully prepared and are able to teach thinking skills and problem solving? That is the piece that a lot of us are worried about.”

The study could not attribute the gains to No Child Left Behind, which President George Bush signed into law in 2002. It says that states, school districts and schools have created interconnected policies to raise achievement and that there is no way to tell how scores would have changed without the law.

To improve scores, teachers may be devoting more time to reading and math at the expense of other subjects, and tests could have been tweaked to make them easier, according to the study.

Reaching the proficient level in Maryland, however, is more difficult than in most states, experts said.

The report comes a week after the Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a study that said high-achieving students have “languished” under No Child Left Behind because teachers devoted resources to helping lower-level students.

But the law has been responsible for some positive effects, said Margaret McLaughlin, an education professor at U.Md. It has caused more studies to look at students’ achievement.

“Until we desegregated data by subgroups, we didn’t have accountability or even the know what different groups of kids were doing, and I think that’s been a huge, huge positive of No Child Left Behind,” McLaughlin said.

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com

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