A study often called The Nation's Report Card came out Thursday. The National Center for Education Statisticsgave eighth graders a new science test in 2009 and gave it again in 2011. None of the states did worse last year, 16 did better, most scored about the same. Idaho was one of those. But NCES’s Arnold Goldstein says Idaho did well on the science test overall.
“In 2009 it was ranked 12th and in 2011 ranked 14th. So even though there was no statistically significant improvement, the performance relative to the other states was pretty good.”
Of its neighbors Idaho students outperformed Washington, Oregon, and Nevada on the 2011 science test. But Utah, Wyoming, and Montana did better. Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming were among the states that improved between the two tests. Goldstein says much of the improvement was in low performing states that had more room to go up. That’s true of Nevada which is near the bottom of the heap, but not Utah and Wyoming which are near the top.