Alexander Statement on “Nation’s Report Card” Results

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 28 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) made the following statement on results released today from the 2015 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), often called the “Nation’s Report Card”:

“Today’s results from the Nation’s Report Card are disappointing news for our country’s students and show that the No Child Left Behind federal law and waivers are no longer helping our students improve their performance. Our fourth graders are doing worse in math compared to 2013, and eighth graders are falling back in both math and reading. We need to fix No Child Left Behind so our students can improve their academic achievement, and the way to do that is to sign into law legislation that restores to states, school districts, classroom teachers, and parents—those closest to the children—the responsibility for deciding how to help our country’s 50 million children in 100,000 public schools succeed.”

The NAEP tests for reading and math are administered every other year to students in the fourth and eighth grades – and give states a clear picture of students’ progress over time. Since 2003, students in every state have participated in the NAEP assessments.

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For access to this release and Chairman Alexander’s other statements, click here.