The “Nation’s Report Card” came in and North Dakota’s students are outperforming the national average in mathematics. In the newest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, eighth graders that took the assessment had an average mathematics score of 280, compared to the national average of 272.
Stan Schauer is the director of assessments at the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. He says 4th and 8th grade students are tested in math and reading and the results are compared to the state’s past scores and the scores of other states.
"I think it's a very promising thing that we were in the 6 or 7 top states in 4th grade math. It's not a great thing seeing that we were in the middle of the pack, 23rd or 24th, in 8th grade reading. So, definitely some work to do there."
Schauer says though state math scores are slightly up compared to two years ago, reading scores are on a downward trend. He says there are a few programs which were started after the pandemic that look promising in raising these scores. He hopes to see the results in time for the next national assessment.
"I'm thinking soon we're going to see some of the effects of those programs that take a little bit longer to show their effectiveness. But, it takes a lot of effort to stop a decline after a huge happening like we went through with the pandemic. It takes good leadership from school boards; I think here at the state department we have to be as supportive as we can. The principals and superintendents supporting the teachers, students being motivated to try to increase their learning, as well as parents being involved — just a continuous dose of what we had been doing, I think will result in some of these scores going up in the next couple of years."