Can I Write Better Than an 8th Grader?
My money is on the 8th graders. I finally discovered a way to test my pathetic writing skills against the average American 8th grader: The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP for you education geeks out there. The NAEP is a test given to a random cross section of students across the country so that states can compare themselves to one another. The 8th grade writing results are in and there is both good and bad news for Colorado students. The good news is that Colorado 8th graders ended up tied for 5th place in the country with Maine’s students. Not too shabby. The bad news is that we still have not achieved the NAEP’s designated level of proficiency. Oddly enough, New Jersey, despite its students having difficulty seeing through much of the smog, is the only state to achieve proficient status. In our latest ivoices.org podcast, Ben DeGrow and Education Policy Center Director Pam Benigno discuss the NAEP results and how they may be influenced by the implementation of the CSAP.
