Although minority students in urban districts lag well behind whites on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), results indicate African Americans and Hispanic students are performing on par with their racial and ethnic counterparts in suburban and rural areas. The 2003 NAEP in mathematics and reading was administered to a representative sample of students in grades four and eight for each state, and on a trial basis to students in nine large urban school districts. Fourth- and eighth-grade public school students in nine urban school districts participated in the 2003 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). They included: Atlantic City, Boston School District, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, City of Chicago School District 299, Cleveland Municipal School District, Houston Independent School District, Los Angeles Unified, New York City Public Schools, and San Diego City Unified. The District of Columbia is also included in the comparisons. Findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2003 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) for both reading and mathematics can be reviewed at the NCES web site. For a look at the TUDA reading results go to http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/results2003/districtresults.asp

Charlotte-Mecklenburg students scored above the national average in both subjects and for both grades. What factors may have contributed to this difference? Possible answers may be found in the report from the Council of Great City Schools, Foundation for Success: Case Studies for How Urban School System Improve Student Achievement. This document presents a case study of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district along with four other districts. It can be viewed at http://www.cgcs.org/pdfs/Foundations.pdf.

Teachers

Under pressure from legislators, North Carolina education leaders agreed to drop state testing requirements for the thousands of out-of-state teachers who are recruited every year to help fill classroom vacancies, reported The (Raleigh) News & Observer. Newly graduated teachers from colleges and universities in North Carolina also will no longer need to pass subject-area tests to teach in middle or high school classrooms. Schools view the test as a barrier to attracting and hiring teachers who are licensed in other states but lack the tests or scores required by North Carolina. State leaders say that the new federal standards for teachers under the No Child Left Behind law give North Carolina schools an extra measure of quality control at the same time that they made the policy change necessary.

© 2004 American Association of School Administrators. All rights reserved.

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