Boston students lead urban districts in math improvement on national exams

BOSTON - Test results released today show that students in the Boston Public Schools demonstrated the highest improvement in Grade 4 and 8 math when compared to 10 other large city school districts who participated in the urban portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Boston Public Schools (BPS) has voluntarily participated in the NAEP administration of the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) since 2003. TUDA is administered in reading and math in 11 of the country's leading urban school districts and provides the only district-level review of student performance on the NAEP exams.

From 2003 to 2007, the percent of BPS students scoring at or above Proficient has increased by 15 points in Grade 4 math and 10 points in Grade 8 math. Only one other district demonstrated such gains in Grade 4, but no other district made such gains in Grade 8.

The success in math mirrors Boston's performance on the 2007 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Exams (MCAS) where there was an increase in the percent of students reaching Proficiency and above in every grade tested.

On the reading exams, Boston students have made only marginal gains since 2003, but their performance continues to be higher than that of most other urban districts. District officials noted that these results affirm the need to reexamine the literacy and English Language Arts curricula at all levels.

"The academic performance of our students on these national exams confirms what we learned through the MCAS results: Our students are better prepared for success in math and are grasping the concepts of problem solving at a greater rate," said Boston School Committee Chair Dr. Elizabeth Reilinger. "The challenge before us is to take a hard look at our approach to English Language Arts so that we can realize similar results in reading and writing."

Results in math include:

• From 2003 to 2007, the average scale scores in Boston Public Schools increased by 13 points in Grade 4 and 14 points in Grade 8, both more than double the increase for the average for all large urban cities (6 and 7 points, respectively).
• From 2003 to 2007, the average scale score in Grade 4 increased for all racial groups. The average scaled score increased across all racial groups, except Asian students, for the same time period in Grade 8.
• From 2003 to 2007, Hispanic students' gains were among the highest in Grade 4 (+15 points) and outpaced all other racial groups in Grade 8, with an increase of 18 points.

"The performance of students on the math exam tells a good story about the Boston Public Schools," said Superintendent Dr. Carol R. Johnson. "The results demonstrate that students are learning the critical skills needed to find solutions to difficult math problems. However, the scores also tell us that we have to reexamine our approach to teaching literacy."

Dr. Johnson noted that the district's relatively flat English Language Arts scores on both MCAS and TUDA have prompted the development of a citywide strategy to focus on literacy.

The TUDA exams are administrated every two years. The other ten participating districts are Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego and the District of Columbia.

TUDA is unique in that it is the only nation-wide examination that breaks out the performance of urban students. This provides each participating district with the ability to measure how it is performing when compared to districts of similar size and population.

For more information or to view the full report, visit http://nationsreportcard.gov/.

4 schools, and recently won the Broad Prize for Urban Education as the top city school district in the country.