Study: Reading tests easier than math exams

updated 12:11 a.m. ET Oct. 4, 2007

WASHINGTON - The math tests students take under the No Child Left Behind law are harder than the reading exams, a study finds.

States design tests for their students in both subjects in grades three through eight and once in high school.

By 2014, all students are supposed to reach the proficiency mark on those tests, which generally means they are working at their grade level.

What kids have to show they can do to be labeled proficient in math is typically harder in most states than what they have to do to in reading, according to a study released Thursday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based education think tank.

The findings come a little more than a week after the federal government reported students have been making much more progress in math than in reading in recent years.

Michael Petrilli, the think tank’s vice president for policy, said it makes sense that students’ math skills are improving if there are high expectations of them in that subject.

“If the bar is higher, you’ve got to work a lot harder,” he said.

The Fordham study also found many states are making it easy to score well on the tests given in elementary school but harder to pass the middle-school tests.

That could be “giving parents, educators, and the public the false impression that younger students are on track for future success — and perhaps setting them up for unhappy surprises in the future,” the report states.

Breakdown of report
The study only looked at tests in about half the states — places where students take the state exams plus tests by the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit testing group. The report’s authors compared the state tests to the association’s exams to check for rigor.

Specifically, the report found:

• In reading, Colorado, Wisconsin and Michigan generally had the lowest proficiency standards.
• The highest standards in reading were found in South Carolina, California, Maine and Massachusetts.
• In math, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were cited as having the lowest proficiency standards.
• The highest math standards were found in South Carolina, Massachusetts, California and New Mexico.

The Fordham institute supports creating uniform educational standards and tests across state lines.

The No Child Left Behind law is up for renewal this year in Congress, and many lawmakers support putting new incentives in the law to encourage states to raise their standards.

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