GovCentral

Fourth-grade Math Top 10: * Leading the nation in fourth-grade math improvement was North Carolina, where the portion of students passing more than tripled from 13 percent scoring proficient in 1992 to 40 percent passing in 2005. Following North Carolina, the states with the biggest gains in percentage of students passing the math tests were: Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, Idaho, Arkansas, Wyoming, Florida, South Carolina and Indiana. Fourth-grade Math Bottom 10: * Even the worst-performing states in fourth-grade math nearly doubled the percentage of students who passed since 1992. Still, the District of Columbia and New Mexico came in last, behind Alabama, Iowa, Maine, Hawaii, Missouri, West Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky and Georgia. Fourth-grade Reading Top 10: * Improvements in reading scores, although modest nationwide, were significant at the fourth-grade level in several states. Colorado and Delaware went from only one-quarter of students reading at grade level in 1992 to 37 percent and 34 percent respectively in 2005. The next states to make the most percentage point gains were: Florida, Maryland, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Arkansas, New York and Minnesota. Fourth-grade Reading Bottom 10: * The worst-performing states in fourth-grade reading posted negative gains between 1992 and 2005. The number of students who passed in Oklahoma dropped by 4 points, in Iowa by 3 points, in New Mexico by 2 points and in Maine by 1 percentage point. The number of passing scores in reading in Wisconsin, Indiana, West Virginia, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Georgia rose by less than 1 percentage point. Eighth-grade Reading Top 10: * Delaware, the only state in the nation to post better-than-average gains in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math, showed the largest increase in the nation in the percentage of eighth-graders to pass the reading test between 1992 and 2005. Massachusetts and Wyoming were the only other states to show significant improvement in passing rates by eighth-graders - 7 points and 5 points respectively - followed by 3 percentage point gains in Missouri, South Carolina, Louisiana, Washington, Florida, Arkansas and Virginia. Eighth-grade Reading Bottom 10: * Eighth-graders performed worse in 2005 than in 1992 in 20 states. Connecticut posted the most significant losses, dropping from 40 percent of students testing at grade-level in 1992 to 34 percent passing in 2005, behind: West Virginia, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Maine, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Oregon. Eighth-grade Math Top 10: * North Carolina, which posted the largest percentage point gains in fourth-grade math, also led the nation in improving eighth-grade math. The percentage of students passing nearly tripled from just 12 percent scoring at grade level in 1992 to 32 percent in 2005. The next states showing the most percentage gains were: Massachusetts, South Carolina, Ohio, Delaware, Virginia, Texas, New Jersey, Arkansas and Minnesota. Eighth-grade Math Bottom 10: * Iowa and Washington, D.C., made the smallest gains in eighth-grade math -- less than 2 percentage points -- between 1992 and 2005. They were behind New Mexico, Oklahoma, Maine, Hawaii, Alabama, North Dakota, California, Missouri and Mississippi.