Press Release:
Statement from Bob Wise, President of the Alliance for Excellent Education, on the 2008 Long-Term Trend Assessment
Washington, DC–Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, issued the following statement in reaction to the release of the 2008 NAEP Long-Term Trend Reading and Mathematics Assessments . The test results showed no improvement in the average reading and math scores of seventeen-year-olds since 1971 and 1973, respectively.
“For our high school students, these are mainframe computer results in a laptop world. Happily student gains are still being made in the elementary and middle schools, but if our high schools were cell phones, these NAEP results are a massive cry of ‘can you hear me now.’ In our modern knowledge-based economy, far more of our high school students need to perform well. I don’t know anyone who wants to hire a worker in 2009 with a 1971 performance level.
“If you end up in the emergency room with an EKG that shows this kind of flat line, someone should be putting electrically-charged paddles to your chest. These results come at a crucial time with the White House and the Congress able to direct massive efforts to transforming high schools. The recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the upcoming congressional action on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act can provide the kind of genuine stimulus that America’s high schools need to provide a world-class education to all of America’s students.”
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The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington-based policy, research, and advocacy organization that works to make every child a graduate, prepared for postsecondary education and success in life.