Texas, HISD get lower marks in reading, math on ‘Nation’s Report Card’

In this 2016 file photo, textbooks and other teaching materials sit out on desks at the intermediate school in Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District. Ryan Pelham/The Beaumont Enterprise In this 2016 file photo, textbooks and other teaching materials sit out on desks at the intermediate school in Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District. Ryan Pelham/The Beaumont Enterprise Photo: Ryan Pelham / Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise Photo: Ryan Pelham / Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Texas, HISD get lower marks in reading, math on ‘Nation’s Report Card’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Texas students fell to their all-time lowest ranking in reading and slipped closer to the national averages in math last year, part of an across-the-board decline on the test commonly known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” according to results released Tuesday.

Texas fourth-graders ranked 45th and eighth-graders placed 41st in reading on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, the state’s lowest finish in the exam’s 25-year history. Texas students still performed above national averages on the math test — fourth-graders placed 18th, eighth-graders placed 24th — though both cohorts saw their standing drop in 2017.

The gloomy results likely will add to growing frustration over Texas’ academic standing across the nation. The NAEP test, administered to a sampling of fourth- and eighth-grade students across the country every two years, is considered one of the leading indicators of academic achievement in elementary and middle schools. The results are used to compare performance among states and 27 of the largest school districts, including Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston ISDs. Results for other school districts are not released.

Texas Education Agency officials, who received the NAEP results prior to their release Tuesday, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mirroring Texas’ slump, Houston ISD also saw declines, including a significant tumble in reading scores. Still, HISD continues to perform exceptionally well in math relative to other large school district nationally, with students excelling across all races.

Texas students long have performed better on math tests than reading assessments, which could be attributable partly to the state’s large percentage of students for whom English is a second language. However, the 2017 results in reading mark a sharp decline after years of hewing closer to national averages in both subjects. In reading, Texas fourth-graders fell six spots in state rankings, while eighth-graders slipped three. In math, fourth-graders dropped eight spots and eighth-graders edged down two.

Keith Millner, director of the Children’s Learning Institute Solutions Group, part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, deemed the state’s reading performance concerning.

“I’m discouraged and sad to see Texas performing so low relative to other states, and it’s discouraging to see it’s falling and not rising,” said Millner, who oversaw a 30-district literacy grant administered by the Texas Education Agency from 2012 to 2017. “What we need is commitment, leadership, funding and follow-through. Connecting all those dots can be challenging.”

Similar to statewide peers, HISD’s standing among large school districts slipped slightly in 2017.

Among the 21 districts that were assessed in 2015 and 2017, HISD fourth-graders placed seventh in math — down one spot — and dropped two places to 15th in reading.

More Information By the numbers Texas’ standing on the National Assessment of Education Progress test in 2017. Math Fourth-graders: 18 Eighth-graders: 24 Reading Fourth-graders: 45 Eighth-graders: 41

Eighth-grade performance also declined in HISD, slipping from 10th to 12th in math and 12th to 14th in reading.

HISD’s black, Hispanic and white students remain among the nation’s highest performers in math, with each demographic ranking in the top third of districts rated.

However, HISD’s reading scores took the second-biggest tumble out of the 21 districts. Only Detroit Public Schools, notorious for its abysmal academic performance, suffered a sharper drop.

“Similar to other urban districts in Texas and nationally, HISD continues to struggle in the area of reading outcomes for minority students,” HISD officials said in a written statement. “District literacy initiatives are in place to continue to provide principals and teachers with researched-based reading best practices, resources and professional development to combat these challenges.”

The NAEP test is given to select students that are deemed representative of states and large districts. In most states, about 2,000 to 4,000 students in each grade level take the assessment, though roughly 7,500 Texas fourth- and eighth-graders completed the exam. About 800 to 2,000 students in the large districts finished the test.