Cleveland Public School students fare poorly in reading, math tests

We will develop solutions for the problems reported by Thomas Sheeran of the Associated Press.

CLEVELAND - Reading and math scores in the city's public schools ranked among the worst of 11 urban districts in a national survey released Thursday.

Average fourth-grade Cleveland scores ranked ninth out of 11 districts in math and reading. Eighth-graders in Cleveland ranked ninth in math and eighth in reading, according to the voluntary survey conducted as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Proficiency levels were up a bit or unchanged for Cleveland students from 2003 to 2005.

Fourth-grade math proficiency - the top level of performance - increased from 10 percent to 13 percent and reading proficiency rose from 9 percent to 10 percent.

Eighth-grade math proficiency was unchanged at 6 percent and unchanged for reading at 10 percent, or one in 10 students.

More progress in math, as reflected in scores nationally and in Cleveland, might result from a time lag in registering improved reading skills, according to Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of urban districts. An improved reading score "is a hard number to move," Casserly said in a conference call with reporters.

Nationwide, about four in 10 children are proficient in reading or math on the federal tests, which were developed over the past 15 years.

Unlike most state tests that assess how students meet state-mandated standards, the federal tests are meant to allow comparison of various states.

Russ Brown, director of assessment for Cleveland schools, said the city shouldn't be compared to other districts in the survey because it's the only one in which all students get subsidized or free lunch.

Alan Seifullah, a district spokesman, said the district had managed to preserve "a lot of that progress" in recent years in student performance despite budget cuts.

"Our progress has been particularly admirable when you take into consideration that our district has passed one operating levy since 1983," he said.

The U.S. Department of Education survey, sometimes called the Nation's Report Card, said white Cleveland fourth-graders performed better in reading and math compared with black classmates but worse in comparison to whites in the other 10 districts.

Scores improved a bit in Cleveland fourth-grade basic math skills, the midlevel of performance, up from 51 percent in 2003 to 60 percent in 2005. Eighth-grade skills dipped from 38 percent performing at basic levels in 2003 to 34 percent this year.

In reading, Cleveland fourth-graders went from 35 percent average basic skill levels in 2003 to 37 percent this year. Average eighth-grade basic reading skills went from 48 percent to 49 percent.

Cleveland has about 60,000 students, 70 percent black, 19 percent white and 9 percent Hispanic.

The leadership upheaval combined with budget cuts and the layoff of 1,400 teachers in the past two years all contribute to uncertainty, said Joanne DeMarco, president of the Cleveland Teachers Union.

She said progress would depend on hiring enough teachers to tutor individual students and reduce class sizes.