A better report card today for Texas students: they’re scoring higher than the national average in science and math.
And among the nation’s five biggest states, Texas spends less per student than any of the other four: New York, Illinois, Florida and California.
The grades are not all good for Texas kids: they’re doing worse than the national average in literacy, even when factoring out students for whom English is a second language.
Although Education Commissioner Michael Williams is encouraged by the gains in science and math, he says there’s more to be done.
“We know that there are areas that we have to continue to work in,” Williams said. “Reading and writing happens to be one. In many ways, so is math and science. We’ve come a long way. We have a ways to go.”
While there’s improvement nationally on reading scores in today’s report, there’s no improvement for eighth-graders in Texas.
