A report card on America’s children

Just as kids nationwide are starting to return from school with report cards, our new report looks at the report card for America’s overall education system. The results, based on federal test scores, are not good: only one in three fourth grader reads proficiently, and only 40 percent are proficient in math. And the disparities by race and income are shocking.

Yet according to state governments, there’s no real problem. In fact, most state assessments report that their students are largely reading and doing math as well as they should. Only the federal test scores show they are not. Learn why, and what needs to be done to instill core skills in America’s students.