Serving Bread

In case you did not know, by Mississippi’s own state standards, it ranks first (among all fifty states) in an important education benchmark—how well its fourth-graders read. By its own count, the state boasts that nearly 90 percent of it’s fourth-graders score as proficient or better in reading. They score a hair better than the fourth-graders from Nebraska.

But when the federal government came in to test, the state scored in 50th place, with only 18% of its fourth-graders scoring as proficient or better in reading. (Mississippi did beat Washington DC which has about 1 in 10 of its students scoring as proficient or better in reading)

There are three options here. Either (1) the federal government test is flawed, (2) the state’s test is flawed or (3) both tests are flawed. Though I’m not a fan of the federal government testing procedures as outlined by [tag]No Child Left Behind[/tag], I imagine that [tag]Mississippi[/tag] is somewhat delusional in its self-perception.

Source: Time Magazine, June 4, 2007, page 39.