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Florida Students Shine In New 'Nation's Report Card'

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A new National Report Card is out and Florida students, including Miami-Dade County Public School students, continue to surpass the nation on standardized assessments.

Florida was the only state where students scored higher on a national math exam last year, solving problems better than counterparts did two years earlier and making progress where the rest of the country remained in place, according to the new results released on Tuesday by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.

Nationwide, fourth-graders made no improvements in math or reading. Eighth grader scores were flat in math and only slightly improved in reading.

Overall, only a third of American eighth graders are proficient in reading and math along with about 40-percent of fourth-graders.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued the following statement in response:

"The report card is in, and the results are clear: We can and we must do better for America's students. Our nation's reading and math scores continue to stagnate. More alarmingly, the gap between the highest and lowest performing students is widening, despite billions in Federal funding designated specifically to help close it."

Florida, however, was the only state where students scored higher on the national math exam last year.

"One bright spot in today's report is Florida, where Sunshine State students are bucking the national trend, showing significant improvement in 4th and 8th grade math and in 8th grade reading. Both low and high performers in Florida demonstrated that improvement, again bucking the national trend and narrowing the achievement gap," read the statement from Secretary De DeVos. "Florida leaders, administrators, and, most importantly, teachers are to be commended for their continued efforts on behalf of students. Florida has been at the forefront of bold, comprehensive education reform for decades. From accountability, to literacy, to teacher certification and recognition, to providing parents more freedom to select the learning environment that best fits their students' needs, Florida is rethinking education. Florida's results show what is possible when we focus on individual students."

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho also commented on the results.

"Miami-Dade County Public Schools' students continue to surpass the nation on standardized assessments, including NAEP-TUDA," said Carvalho. "Miami-Dade's results for what is widely considered the Nation's Report Card, suggests that academic standards, instructional rigor, and student achievement continue to move on an upward trend in our school district. This is an impressive achievement that our School Board, students, teachers, employees and the entire community can celebrate."

Nationally, M-DCPS fourth graders ranked #1 in Reading, and #2 in Mathematics.

Miami-Dade along with the other two Florida Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) districts significantly outscored the nation, large city sample, and all other TUDA districts in both Reading and Mathematics, in Grade 4.

In M-DCPS's fifth year of participation in the national assessment, M-DCPS Hispanic students continue to shine, achieving higher Reading and Mathematics scale scores in all tested grade levels than both the national public school and large city samples. Significant growth was seen in Reading and Mathematics scale scores for fourth grade students in the District from 2009 to 2017.

M-DCPS was the only TUDA district to exhibit significant scale score growth from 2015 to 2017 in Grade 4 Mathematics.

In Grade 8, M-DCPS students outscored the large city sample in Reading and matched them in Mathematics.

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