Take that John Stossel! Some good education news!

From the BoardBuz Blog:

Ok. BoardBuzz admits, we’re picking on media’s most vocal school-basher. But educators should be forgiven if they gloat over these results: at every age, by every student group, in both reading and math, American schoolkids are outperforming their counterparts from 30 years ago. Moreover, our 9- and 13-year olds are scoring at their highest levels since scores have been collected.
According to NAEP’s Long-Term Trends released today, reading and math scores also increased by statistically significant margins in the four years between 2004 and 2008, with the one exception of 17-year-olds in math. In addition to higher student performance, the report shows dramatic increases in the numbers of students taking high-level math. Nearly two-thirds of 13-year-olds (62%) were taking algebra or pre-algebra compared to one-third in 1986. And a whopping 72% of 17-year-olds had taken courses Algebra II and higher, up from 47% in 1978.

The folks at Education Week had a markedly different take on the matter.

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