INTERVIEW: Trisha Powell Crain On Alabama’s Low NAEP Ranks

Dan Carsen | July 22, 2014

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90.3 WBHM BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama recently got some unflattering news about its students’ proficiency, especially in eighth-grade math. The National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP is a standardized test sometimes called “the nation’s report card.” On the 2013 test, Alabama eighth-graders ranked fiftieth out of 52 jurisdictions in mathematics (schools on military bases and the District of Columbia were counted separately). But as with most education topics, it’s not quite that simple. WBHM’s Dan Carsen sat down with Alabama School Connection executive director Trisha Powell Crain to go behind those results. She says we shouldn’t put too much emphasis on one data point, or be too surprised at Alabama’s low showing: