[L]ast week, the federal government released scores for the nation and the states, and New York did not fare well. In fact, almost all of New York’s reported gains for the past seven years disappeared into thin air.

The federal test – the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP – is the gold standard of testing. Congress requires all states to take NAEP tests to audit state claims. The federal audit was an embarrassment for New York.

The reading scores released last week show that 36% of New York’s fourth-graders – not 77% – are proficient. And unlike the state scores, which have gone up every year without fail, the state scores on NAEP for fourth-graders have been flat since 2002. The federal test continues to show huge achievement gaps: 45% of white students are proficient, as are 52% of Asians. This contrasts with 18% of black students and 22% of Hispanic students.

In eighth grade, the picture is no better. On the NAEP test, 33% of our students are proficient in reading, not the 69% claimed by the state. The federal test shows zero improvement at this grade since 1998. And the racial achievement gap is shocking: 44% of whites are proficient, as are 49% of Asians, but only 13% of blacks and 16% of Hispanics.

In math, the state does slightly better, but not much. The federal tests show 40% of our fourth-grade students are proficient, while the state says it is 87%. Over time, the federal scores have improved for this grade, but not for eighth grade. There, only 34% are proficient, not the 80% claimed by the state. And, unlike the state, which has boasted of big improvements in the eighth grade, the federal tests reveal that there have been no gains in eighth grade since 2003.

If students in New York made no gains on the national tests, why did state tests report spectacular progress every year? The people of the state deserve an honest answer.

Fortunately, there is new leadership in Albany. Merryl Tisch, the new chancellor of the Board of Regents, and David Steiner, the new state commissioner of education, have pledged to review the entire testing program. Surely they will determine how standards dropped so low that the public was regularly misinformed about student progress.

Now is the time for honesty, integrity and transparency.

Article.

“We cannot continue to accept that barely half of the country’s black and Hispanic students are graduating from high school, or that white children can read at levels far exceeding those of minority children,” Chancellor Klein said. “These facts translate to diminished life opportunities for millions of students who are being denied their proper access to the American Dream.”

The event, held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, was part of the Department of Education’s “Closing the Achievement Gap” series. The series of forums is designed to engage educators, parents, and other members of the New York City community in a dialogue about how to improve achievement.

Klein and Sharpton also co-authored a Wall Street Journal editorial calling on President Obama to nurture “a bipartisan coalition that challenges the entrenched education establishment…. [and] demonstrate an unflagging commitment to ‘what works’ to dramatically boost academic achievement — rather than clinging to reforms that we ‘wish would work.’”

Sign us at 20/20 up for that bipartisan coalition!

A similar call during the election last year resulted in Klein and Sharpton convening the Education Equality Project.  On eve of President-elect Obama’s historic inauguration, the EEP will host an Martin Luther King Day education rally in at Cardozo High School in Washington, DC, this Monday, January 19.

Reverend Sharpton and Chancellor Klein will lead the rally and will be joined by other civil rights, government, and education leaders including Mayors Booker (Newark) and Johnson (Sacramento), Martin Luther King III, Governor Romer, US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Dr. Michael Lomax (President, United Negro College Fund), Geoffrey Canada (President and Chief Executive Officer for Harlem Children’s Zone), and Senator McCain.