Jackson Free Press

National test scores in math and reading consistently put Mississippi below the national average, but this year's results show students made gains in one of the areas where they typically fall farthest behind: 8th-grade math scores.

Students this year scored four points higher than in 2009 and 15 points higher than in 2000.

In 2009, Mississippi students were 17 points below the national average; this year they closed the gap to 14 points.

The national average 8th-grade math score went up one point from 2009 and 11 points since 2000.

The U.S. Department of Education released the National Assessment of Educational Progress results—sometimes referred to as the "Nation's Report Card"—today, showing students made slight gains in most areas nationwide. The National Center for Education Statistics administers math and reading tests to a sample of about 380,000 4th and 8th graders in each subject area to test their proficiency level in those subjects.

The tests grade public-school students on a scale of 0 to 500 for each grade and subject area. On a national level, students at all income levels posted the highest scores to date in both math and reading. Nationally, 4th graders scored an average of 220 in reading and 240 in math. Eighth graders scored 264 in reading and 283 in math.

Mississippi scored about 10 points behind the national average in most areas, which some have estimated puts the state's students, on average, about a grade level below their peers.

The state ranks below most other states, although Mississippi students scored higher than students in the District of Columbia, which posted the lowest scores in each grade and subject level.

In reading and 4th-grade math, the difference between 2009 and 2011 scores was not statistically significant, which means the difference is within the margin of error and could be due to differences in the test from one year to the next or other variables.

Blake Wilson, president of the Mississippi Economic Council, told the Jackson Free Press last month that education plays a large part in determining whether children will succeed in the rest of school and enter the work force able to compete. "It just comes up consistently when you talk to business leaders—that 4th-grade testing scores are so critical," he said.

The council, along with Momentum Mississippi, recently released recommendations advising the state to improve its education system to pave the way for future economic growth.

Rachel Canter, executive director of Mississippi First, said other than the improvement in 8th-grade math scores, the NAEP results are pretty much on par with how Mississippi has performed on the tests in the past few years.

"We haven't seen really any movement at all with our NAEP scores, which is pretty worrisome considering that we're pretty far behind," she said.

The common core curriculum standards, which the state is beginning to phase in this year, should help Mississippi's test scores to improve as its curriculum gets on par with the rest of the country, Canter said. She added a note of caution, saying "we need both significant and sizable movement on NAEP."

"[A] a change could seem large but not actually be 'real' in a statistical sense," Canter said. "Conversely, a change might be significant statistically but still not be very large." She added, "We need something to compare it to in order to know how large that change is.

The new standards are part of an initiative underway in most states in the country to get students in states that perform lower academically, such as Mississippi, on the same level as states that consistently score high.

Mississippi has improved in some areas over time, however. This year, Mississippi's 4th-grade reading scores are up six points from 1998, despite a two-point decrease from 2009. The state's students posted three-point gains in 8th-grade reading and 4th-grade math scores, but two and three-point changes are not considered statistically significant.

National test scores show that Mississippi still lags behind the national average in math and reading, but is making gains in 8th-grade math scores—the area where it traditionally falls the farthest behind.