Achievement Gaps Shrunk Faster in the 70s and 80s than Over the Past Decade - Dana Goldstein

Achievement Gaps Shrunk Faster in the 70s and 80s than Over the Past Decade - Dana Goldstein:

Achievement Gaps Shrunk Faster in the 70s and 80s than Over the Past Decade

Yesterday I noticed Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post and Matt Yglesias of Slate tweeting that there is proof education reform is working. They cited this set of charts of NAEP score improvements since 1996, posted by Mac LeBuhn, a policy analyst at Democrats for Education Reform. 

I hate to be a downer, but attributing this good news to recent reform pushes, like No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and new teacher accountability schemes is extremely iffy, just as Stephen Sawchuck of Ed Week pointed out. Here's why: It just so happens that we have NAEP scores since 1971, and in the area of 8th grade math, which LeBuhn highlighted, the increase in raw scores and reduction of the achievement gap is actually a longterm trend. Take a look:

In fact, achievement gaps shrunk much faster during the 1970s and 1980s than they have over the