Alabama leads growth in reading and math scores, according to Nation's Report Card
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is based on test scores in reading and math from fourth, eighth and 12th graders across the U.S. The test is given every two years.
Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey said he is pleased with elementary math scores but mentioned there's still more work to do.
'You may read in the national news that nationally, reading went down,' Mackey said. 'There were only two states that have recovered to pre-pandemic levels and seen growth, and that's Alabama and Louisiana.'
Since 2019, Alabama has jumped from 49th to 34th in the nation for fourth-grade reading. When it comes to fourth-grade math, Alabama moved from 52nd to 32nd in the nation in that time. Mackey said he wants to continue building on that growth.
'So we feel like what we're doing in the classroom is working, but it's going to be summer school. It's going to be after-school care. It's going to be intercessions,' Mackey said. 'What happens outside the classroom is almost as important as what happens in the classroom.'
Nation's Report Card: Alabama scores still below national average despite growth in 2024
Gov. Kay Ivey said Alabama is on the right path to continuing improvement.
'We're number two in the nation for the largest gains in reading,' Ivey said. 'So this is good news for Alabama, and we are grateful to the students, teachers and their parents.'
Alabama Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter said the legislature is ready to support those gains in education this year.
'This is the biggest move we've ever made since I've been here,' Ledbetter said. 'So we can be proud that we are more along the national average now instead of being at the bottom, so job well done.'
Corey Clements, Chilton County Schools superintendent, said the Literacy Act and improving attendance has been a key to success.
'We'll be starting the Numeracy Act coming up soon, and [we] hope to see as those students progress through the grades, we hope to continue to see our NAEP scores improve like this,' Clements said.
Mackey said the Alabama Department of Education will be submitting a record budget request to the legislature in 2025 aimed at helping students improve.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
28 minutes ago
- USA Today
Lawmaker spends night in Texas Capitol, and could stay longer. Here's why.
A Texas state lawmaker who spent the night on the floor of the Austin statehouse overnight into Aug. 19 plans to stay even longer as she refuses to accept a Republican order demanding all Democrats be monitored by police officers. Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier is hunkering down in the Texas Capitol building in protest of Republican leadership assigning law enforcement officers to monitor the state's Democratic caucus, after dozens fled the state for two weeks in attempts to halt a vote on new congressional maps that would advantage the GOP in next year's elections. Collier, the former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus who is serving her seventh two-year term representing Fort Worth, refused to agree to the police monitor, remaining in the Capitol in protest. She has been livestreaming herself for hours on X, in an otherwise largely empty chamber, and posted a photo of herself sleeping on a chair with a blanket and eye mask early on Tuesday, Aug. 19. "This was my night, bonnet and all, in the #txlege," she said in the post. Collier said in a video on X that two other Democratic state representatives, Gene Wu and Vince Perez, joined her overnight, all of them sleeping in chairs on the State House floor. Collier told NBC News that she doesn't plan to leave until Democratic lawmakers are freed from security shadowing. The Texas House is set to reconvene on Wednesday, Aug. 20. "What matters to me is making sure that I resist and fight back against and push back," Collier told Reuters from the Capitol in an interview on Aug. 18. Fallout from Texas redistricting fight Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives returned to Austin on Monday, Aug. 18, ending the stalemate that ballooned into a multistate partisan battle. Leadership of several other states have threatened to redraw their congressional maps in response to Texas Republicans' plans, which could end up adding five more GOP seats to Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and widen the party's narrow majority. Gavin Newsom, the governor of Democratic stronghold California, announced Aug. 14 the state will hold a special election to re-draw their own maps, in a bid to add more blue seats in response to Texas' moves. As the Democrats settled back in after their absence, Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows implemented a condition for the returned lawmakers that would make it harder for them to flee a second time. Burrows said Democrats who had left the state but returned would only be allowed to leave the House chambers if they agreed to be released into the custody of an agent from the Texas Department of Public Safety, who would ensure they are present at House sessions going forward. Collier's overnight stay is in protest of these conditions, which she refused to agree to. 'Rep. Collier's choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules," Burrows said in a statement to USA TODAY. "I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test − the results Texans care about." Burrows' conditions are just the latest example of Republicans employing law enforcement against the Democrats amid the weeks-long battle. At one point, the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, said any lawmaker who fundraised or solicited money to pay a $500-per-day fine on absent legislators could violate bribery laws and called them "potential out-of-state felons." Early in their exodus, Abbott issued arrest warrants, which called for the Texas Department of Public Safety to "locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans," though no arrests were made. Contributing: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY; Reuters. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
USA Today
28 minutes ago
- USA Today
If Democrats succeed in midterms, they're coming for Kristi Noem
Hakeem Jeffries promised that the Homeland Security secretary would be among the first "hauled up" to Capitol Hill for oversight hearings if House Democrats win a majority in 2026. If the Democrats take back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026, one member of the Trump administration is going to be spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill. Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, will be among the first Cabinet officials to be "hauled up" to Congress to face hearings, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Speaking on a recent episode of "The Bulwark Podcast," Jeffries promised "aggressive oversight activity" would center around Noem if the balance of power changes after the midterms. 'It's my expectation that Kristi Noem will be one of the first people hauled up to Congress shortly after the gavels change hands," he said. Read more: Kristi Noem slams 'South Park' for 'petty' and 'lazy' spoof of her: 'Only the liberals' The intent of the investigations, he said, would be "to get a real understanding for the American people" of what Jeffries called "the lack of respect for due process, for the rule of law, the unleashing of masked agents on law-abiding immigrant communities, and the disappearing of people in some instances, to other countries without any real evidence that criminal behavior took place." As the head of DHS, Noem, the former Republican governor of South Dakota, spearheads the White House's immigration enforcement agenda, which has drawn intense criticism from advocates and progressive lawmakers. Though congressional Republicans ultimately approved her to her post, she struggled during her confirmation hearings. In one instance, she couldn't identify a basic constitutional right that requires law enforcement officers to justify prisoners' continued confinement. Read more: Kristi Noem botches definition of 'habeas corpus' at Senate hearing On the podcast, Jeffries suggested two notable House Democrats would spearhead the efforts investigating DHS. One would be Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, who helped lead the bipartisan Jan. 6 select committee and would serve as head of the House's Homeland Security Committee. The other would be Jamie Raskin D-Maryland, who would be in charge of the House Oversight Committee. "We'll figure out what the formulation looks like," Jeffries said.
Fox News
29 minutes ago
- Fox News
White House announces bilateral Putin-Zelenskyy meeting
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to participate in a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
