Some of the latest news on this front came earlier this month with a report from the bipartisan National Education Goals Panel, describing test scores in reading for the past several years on the standard National Assessment of Educational Progress. In other words, there is no clear trend, gradual or otherwise, toward gains in reading. For all practical purposes, they can hardly read at all. If such youngsters remain essentially illiterate as they get older, which is highly likely in many cases, they will have next to no chance of upward occupational and socioeconomic mobility. Former Houston School Supt.
Most educators are serious about improving achievement levels in the schools.