Bob CollinsIt’s official. Lots of children are left behind. The “nation’s report card” –– the National Assessment of Educational Progress — is out today, showing the U.S. trailing other nations when it comes to knowledge of science. Science often plays a different fiddle to math and reading in test scores.
While the U.S. ranking compared to other countries is getting the lion’s share of attention, the tragedy of the achievement gap isn’t getting anywhere near the same amount of notice.
Here, for example, are the test scores by ethnicity for the fourth grade:
In Minnesota, black student had an average score that was 36 points lower than white students. That’s not much different than the national average, even though Minnesota’s overall scores were slightly higher than the national average.
