The kids who had been “left behind” are doing much better today than 25 years ago. But what about everyone else?

Michael Petrilli:

I see three key trends worthy of comment.

1. Progress in math in fourth and eighth grade has been widespread and long-lasting. Virtually all groups of students are doing much better now than before. Here are a few examples of what widespread progress looks like, reproduced from this 2017 post:

Eighth grade math, white students, 1990–2015